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The UN General Assembly is already underway. Barwe was granted the visa yesterday after the US embassy initially denied him and Director-General in the President’s Department Retired Major-General Happyton Bonyongwe for unspecified reasons.

In an interview before leaving for New York yesterday, Barwe slammed the US government for violating international laws.

He said the UN Headquarters was an international territory that should be entered by any person whose country is a member of the international body.

“This is an issue of principle because the UN is an international territory and the US government is just contravening sections of the international law.

“However, they have granted me the visa and I am now travelling to cover the UN General Assembly meeting and I am going to tell the story of Zimbabwe as it is and not as they want,” he said.

Barwe said he was granted a one-year visa without any restrictions.

He said the US government could have realised that it was on the wrong side of the law and decided to grant him the visa.

Barwe said his visa issue was also going to dominate the re-engagement dialogue between Harare and Washington set for this week.

“Probably they (US government) noted comments by the Secretary for Information Mr (George) Charamba that the US was not sincere to re-engage Zimbabwe,” he said.

Last year the US denied a visa to Herald Deputy Editor Caesar Zvayi, who was also part of President Mugabe’s delegation attending the same meeting.

The granting of the visa to Barwe followed a complaint lodged to UN Secretary- General Mr Ban Ki-moon by the Zimbabwean Government last week.