Harare — AN attempt by the United States government to play up the flopped Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) mass action hit a snag yesterday, when a five-member delegation from the US-based rightwing Coalition of Black Trade Unions (CBTU) was promptly deported after touching down at Harare International Airport yesterday afternoon.

US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Christopher Dell, who was on hand to receive the delegation, made frantic efforts to prevent the deportation, but all was in vain as immigration authorities remained steadfast that the visit was unacceptable.

The CBTU delegation was put on the next flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, where it had come from after holding a series of meetings with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

Ms Ana Duque-Higgins, the acting public affairs officer at the American Embassy in Harare, yesterday, confirmed the link between the CBTU's abortive visit and the ZCTU's flopped mass action, saying the deportation was an attempt by the Government to "deflect international attention" from the ZCTU "mass action".

Said Ms Duque-Higgins in a Press statement: "The CBTU delegation arrived today at the Harare International Airport from South Africa for a visit scheduled months ago, but was turned away and forced to return to Johannesburg.

"Clearly, the Zimbabwean Government's decision not to honour the delegation's visas is the result of the events of September 13, when security forces 'brutally suppressed' planned peaceful demonstrations by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions."

Acting Minister of Information and Publicity Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana dismissed Ms Duque-Higgins' claims that the delegation had visas, saying Zimbabwe issues visas at the port of entry and the immigration authorities acted within their rights to protect the national interest.

"'As a country, we have the right to admit or bar certain visitors, and I am sure the immigration authorities looked after our national interest in coming to that decision. Unfortunately, in our country we grant visas at the point of entry; if we did not, we would not have allowed the delegation to come here.

"After all, our people are denied visas to travel to the United States on a daily basis, and we do not ask them why, and they should not ask us why we deported their delegation."

The CBTU became the latest foreign trade union to attempt to barge into Zimbabwe to further the opposition's agenda against the Government after Danish Trade Union Council and Cosatu delegations were deported last year.

A source in one of ZCTU's affiliates, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the CBTU itinerary included meetings with the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC faction and various non-governmental organisations involved in ostensibly human rights and governance advocacy, and not worker representatives.

Formed as a progressive trade union movement to champion the rights of black American workers in 1972, the CBTU has since become embedded with the Bush administration's policies of illegal regime change as it actively supported the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The CBTU announced recently --on July 18 -- that it had launched a campaign to "divest President Mugabe of his liberation credentials in the progressive African-American community where he enjoys popular support".

Writing in the rightwing Washington Informer newspaper, CBTU member Dwight Kirk said: "The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists has launched a major campaign to clip (President) Mugabe of his 'liberator' image in the African-American community by exposing the thuggish actions of his regime against the Zimbabwean people."

The organisation's president, William Lucy, was quoted as saying his organisation would "aggressively reach out to African-American media, labour websites/blogs and other 'progressive media' to get Americans tuned into the Zimbabwe crisis".

He also said the CBTU would join other organisations in demonstrations at the Zimbabwe Embassy in Washington DC and other locations.

It appears the abortive visit was part of the organisation's efforts to support anti-Zimbabwe activities to attract the attention of the United Nations General Assembly which met this week.