2008 Press Releases

Statement on Diskin's visit to Zimbabwe 

U.S. Embassy, Harare
Public Affairs Officer

May 28, 2008

Reference is made to the front page article in the Herald newspaper "U.S Envoy to SA sneaks into Zimbabwe" (May 28th 2008).

Contrary to reports in the Herald and Chronicle today, Patrick Diskin is actually the Regional Food for Peace Program Coordinator at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) office based in Pretoria, South Africa. Diskin is on a routine visit to assist USAID/Zimbabwe in monitoring the implementation of U.S. Government humanitarian food assistance programs. USAID/Zimbabwe provided US$171 million worth of food to Zimbabwe’s most vulnerable individuals in the last year through the U.N. World Food Program and NGOs from the Consortium for the Southern African Food Emergency (C-SAFE).

The U.S. Ambassador to South Africa is Eric M. Bost.

Issued by Paul Engelstad, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy, Harare