Row Of Words As Zimbabwe Detains and Deports USAID Officials.

By Prince Kurupati

In the same week that the United States repealed its previous sanctions regime on Zimbabwe in a move that was widely celebrated in Zimbabwe, the two countries find themselves again at loggerheads following the emergence of news that Zimbabwe earlier on detained and forcibly removed U.S. officials who had visited the southern African country.

In a statement released by the U.S. State Department, the United States government said “Last month (February 2024), Zimbabwean officials abruptly detained and deported USAID (US Agency for International Development) officials and contractors, who were conducting an assessment of the development and governance context in Zimbabwe.”

The statement went further alleging that “Members of the assessment team were subject to aggressive handling, prolonged interrogation and intimidation, unsafe and forced night-time transportation, overnight detention and confinement, and forced removal from the country.”

The United States as relayed by the statement made it clear in “the strongest possible terms to the Government of Zimbabwe” that these “actions against a team of development professionals legally admitted to Zimbabwe to support the Government of Zimbabwe’s expressed commitment to democratic reform are egregious, unjustified and unacceptable”.

With the government of Zimbabwe currently preaching the gospel of reengagement something demonstrated by its actions to acquire the services of lobby groups to pressure Washington to change its perception of Zimbabwe, the U.S. State Department said the latest development strongly “undermines those claims”. The statement concluded by saying, “We take the safety and security of U.S. citizens seriously and demand accountability from the Government of Zimbabwe”.

Corroborating the U.S. State Department’s statement, USAID administrator Samantha Power said the actions taken by the Zimbabwean authorities are a “grave development” but need not be taken as an isolated event as U.S. citizens have experienced harassment and improper treatment from the Zimbabwean authorities in recent years.

“The United States is deeply concerned by Zimbabwean authorities’ recent attempts to verbally and physically intimidate several U.S. government officials and contractors – subjecting some of them to overnight detention, transportation in unsafe conditions, prolonged interrogation, seizure of and intrusion into personal electronic equipment, and forced deportation… This is a grave development that follows other serious incidents over the past two years in which U.S. government officials and U.S. citizens experienced harassment and improper treatment from the Zimbabwean authorities… USAID supports the people of Zimbabwe as they seek to build a more resilient, inclusive, and democratic society – with accountable political leaders and government institutions, active citizen participation, and adherence to the rule of law,” Power said.

Following the development, several government sympathizers who took to social media platforms to air their views said the Zimbabwean government was right to question and interrogate the officials as they were CIA agents masquerading as USAID human rights assessors. In an ‘X’ post, journalist Maynard Manyowa said, “They (USAID officials) are lucky. We (Zimbabwe) are soft. In other countries spies get locked up. For decades at a time”.

Providing more details from the Zimbabwean government’s perspective was Snowball Tongogara, an ‘X’ account sympathetic to the ruling party Zanu PF which said, “Four United States nationals contracted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reportedly sneaked into the country last month without notifying authorities as per protocol and proceeded to hold unsanctioned and covert meetings, which were to inform Washington’s adversarial foreign policy towards Zimbabwe… The quartet – Brenda Lee Pearson, Norma Kriger, Sarah Logan, and Loretta Bass – work for a US government affiliate, Navanti Group, and their mission was ostensibly to carry out a ‘democracy and governance assessment’ to help USAID design its local programmes… However, the team was busted and deported on February 17 after it was established that their real agenda was more focused on seeking ‘a more effective method to effect regime change in the country’… Curiously, the U.S. national entered the country without prior communication with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and went on to conduct assessment activities in the country, which is a violation of the Geneva Convention.”

Supporting the above sentiments was the Zimbabwean Ambassador to the United States Tadeous Tafirenyika Chifamba who said, “(USAID staff) were asking people questions like, why did the opposition lose after we’ve given you so much support? This clearly is an attempt at regime change… If USAID wants to send more people on missions like this without working directly with the government, they will face a similar fate.”