US embassy cable - 04HARARE314

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 000314 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR SDELISI, LAROIAN, MRAYNOR 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER, DTEITELBAUM 
LONDON FOR CGURNEY 
PARIS FOR CNEARY 
NAIROBI FOR TPFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/22/2009 
TAGS: PGOV, ASEC, ZI 
SUBJECT: BOMB REPORTEDLY DEFUSED AT JUSTICE MINISTER'S 
OFFICE 
 
 
Classified By: Political Officer Win Dayton under Section 1.5(b)(d) 
 
1.  (C) An Embassy FSN whose family is close to the family of 
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa reported on February 22 
that, according to Chinamasa's secretary, an unidentified 
woman delivered a suspicious package to the Minister's office 
last week.  In the course of opening the package, the 
secretary discovered that it contained an apparent bomb and 
 
SIPDIS 
summoned the police.  A police bomb squad removed that 
package and reportedly defused it.  Chinamasa was visiting 
Zambia at the time and the incident has not been reported 
publicly.  The FSN, whose family sees Chinamasa regularly, 
noted that he had increasingly been voicing concern about the 
security of his position and the level of the President's 
confidence in him in recent months.  He reportedly had 
received threats from senior party officials during his 
tenure as attorney general years ago in connection with 
prosecutions he had considered pursuing against party 
members, but was not known to have received threats of late. 
 
 
2.  (C) COMMENT: With the recent arrests of party stalwarts 
Philip Chiyangwa and James Makamba, fear and loathing within 
the ruling party is on the upswing and Chinamasa is probably 
not alone in his professional anxiety.  Word of this latest 
development will likely fuel paranoia and paralysis within 
the party.  It is unclear how the purported attack could 
affect Chinamasa's enthusiasm as ruling party point person in 
interparty talks on talks. 
 
3.  (C) COMMENT (CONT'D): There are no obvious suspects or 
motives for sending the bomb, and Chinamasa seems an unlikely 
target.  Often identified as a hard-liner for his 
orchestration of the ruling party's legislative strategies 
and legal campaign against the MDC and its members, the 
Justice Minister is probably more of a pragmatic careerist. 
He lacks a meaningful popular constituency and does not pose 
an overt political threat to those within the party.  He is 
one of the more austere cabinet ministers, generally 
eschewing the business empire-building of many in favor of 
politicking and farming on his farm(s), at least one of which 
predated fast track land reform.  Aggressive and 
publicity-seeking earlier in his tenure as Justice Minister, 
Chinamasa has kept a relatively low profile during the last 
six months. 
 
SULLIVAN