US embassy cable - 04HARARE682

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000682 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR S. DELISI, L. AROIAN, M. RAYNOR 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER, D. TEITELBAUM 
LONDON FOR C. GURNEY 
PARIS FOR C. NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/21/2009 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, ASEC, PREF, EAGR, EAID, ZI, MDC, ZANU-PF 
SUBJECT: MISCHIEF IN MANICALAND: VIOLENCE ON FARMS, MUTARE 
MAYOR FORCED OUT 
 
REF: HARARE 635 
 
Classified By: Political Officer Win Dayton under Section 1.5 b/d 
 
1.  (U) SUMMARY: Credible sources report that ruling party 
supporters who have seized farms in Manicaland are beating 
farm workers suspected of loyalty to the opposition. 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) is preparing 
to care for farm workers who are being displaced by the 
seizures and associated violence.  In the province's capital 
of Mutare, a mob of ZANU-PF supporters on April 21 locked out 
the duly elected MDC mayor and the MDC-dominated City Council 
and have refused to permit their return. 
 
Farm Workers Beaten, Displaced 
------------------------------ 
 
2.  (C)  MDC MP Roy Bennett advised emboffs on April 21 that 
his recently seized farm, Charleswood Estate (reftel), 
continued to be sealed by personnel from the army and police 
support unit.  After the removal of management principals 
from the farm on Good Friday, occupying forces had 
effectively prevented workers from leaving the farm.  Bennett 
confirmed that workers had been given the option of departing 
or staying on to work for the farm's new operator, Zimbabwe 
Defense Industries (ZDI), but asserted that workers wanting 
to leave had no means to do so -- they lacked transportation 
or arrangements for alternative room and board.  He asserted 
that nearly all the workers and their families, most of whom 
had been associated with his family for more than a 
generation, would choose to leave given a meaningful 
opportunity to do so.  Bennett said he was willing to arrange 
for their transportation and housing pending his legal battle 
over Charleswood, but that occupying forces prevented him 
from entering the farm or communicating with anybody on the 
farm. 
 
3.  (C) Bennett said he was due to have heard on April 22 an 
urgent court application seeking his possession of or access 
to the farm.  He noted that he already had numerous court 
orders establishing his right to possess the farm (a 
registered export processing zone), and had effectively used 
connections with local police and chiefs to stay on the farm 
in the past.  He would draw on such influence with another 
favorable court order but was not confident it would prevail 
over the apparent mandate of his farm's latest occupiers.  He 
noted that contacts within the military confided to him that 
orders for the military role in the farm's seizure had come 
from the President. 
 
4.  (SBU) Bennett reported that, according to a farm worker 
who had managed to depart the farm by April 20, ZANU-PF 
supporters directing the farm's occupation were forcing farm 
workers to attend ZANU-PF rallies, at which they were made to 
chant pro-ruling party slogans and to vilify the MDC.  Those 
suspected of being key MDC sympathizers and some just 
randomly selected were singled out for beatings, in which 
they were slathered with mud and beaten with sticks. 
(Comment: This practice would be consistent with well 
documented, periodically applied ruling party tactics 
predating independence.  End comment.)  Among those beaten 
was an octogenarian pensioner. 
 
5.  (SBU) IOM representatives reported that police officials 
visited the Anglican Church facility where most of 
Charleswood's evicted management and their families were 
being housed and accused church personnel of engaging in 
anti-government activities.  This prompted movement of 
Charleswood's management "refugees" to other safe houses 
under IOM's care.  According to an MDC provincial 
representative, police beat some of them who were waiting for 
a bus to take them to another location. 
 
6.  (SBU) IOM representatives corroborated Bennett's 
allegations and said they were working with him to arrange 
shelter and food for any that could leave the farm.  They 
said they had received unconfirmed reports of additional farm 
seizures under similar circumstances involving security 
forces and beaten/displaced workers.  Most significant among 
these was the highly publicized Kondozi farm seizure, which 
pitted Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made and the the 
Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) against a 
partnership of black and white Zimbabweans reportedly aligned 
with Vice President Joseph Msika and a host of local chiefs. 
IOM representatives confirmed press reports that at least 500 
of the farm's reported 5,000 workers had left the farm and 
were living in camps by the roadside.  IOM was initiating 
action to assure provision of food and shelter.  Many had 
reported being beaten with rubber truncheons by security 
forces who had seized the property for ARDA, which was now 
operating the farm. 
 
7.  (SBU) An IOM representative indicated that at least half 
of Zimbabwe's remaining commercial farms were in Manicaland, 
and at least half of them had been designated for seizure. 
He was unsure how many of these already had been invaded but 
suggested many had been at least partially invaded -- often 
with police and army support -- and were operating at less 
than full capacity. 
 
Opposition Mayor Evicted 
------------------------ 
 
8.  (U) According to an MDC press release, a mob of more than 
2,000 ZANU-PF supporters at 8 a.m. on April 21 sealed off the 
office of MDC Mayor Kagurabadza Mutare's civic center.  The 
release alleged that most supporters had been ferried in from 
outside Mutare, and some from outside Manicaland.  Police 
failed to respond to the mayor's numerous calls for 
assistance.  An MDC provincial party spokesman reported that 
the mayor was finally permitted to depart the building that 
night after addressing the crowd and surrendering the keys to 
his office. 
 
9.  (SBU) Kagurabadza told poloff from his home on April 22 
that his office was being occupied by demonstrators and 
neither he nor any of the city council were permitted entry. 
He recounted that the mob's initial demand had been merely 
that he meet with them.  After he resisted initially over 
security concerns, he met during the evening of April 21. 
They demanded that he agree to suspend recently imposed rate 
hikes.  He noted that the hikes had been approved by Minister 
for Local Government Chombo but he agreed to suspend them 
provisionally until a meeting of stakeholders could be 
convened on the matter April 26.  Upon that concession, the 
demonstrators demanded the resignation of the mayor and the 
city council.  Kagurabadza refused, promising to leave when 
the people lawfully voted in another mayor.  The 
demonstrators said they would only leave if instructed to do 
so by Minister Chombo. 
 
10.  (SBU) The mayor said that demonstration leaders appeared 
to include former ZANU-PF city councilor George Gambe and a 
local self-proclaimed "chief" Murawa.  MDC provincial 
spokesman added that ZANU-PF Central Committee member and 
defeated mayoral candidate Shadreck Beta and ZANU-PF 
Provincial Youth Chairman Enoch Boruzingaze also were 
involved, although Kagurabadza could not confirm this.  The 
mayor confirmed that he and the council generally enjoyed a 
good working relationship with key ZANU-PF city management 
officials officials appointed by the city's last ZANU-PF 
municipal administration. 
 
11.  (SBU) Kagurabadza advised that he was attempting to 
resolve the conflict through negotiation, for now eschewing 
the party's historically favored legal maneuvers that he 
considered uniformly expensive and unsuccessful.  He had 
contacted Manicaland Governor Nyambuya, who had urged that he 
work things out through the police.  He had an appointment on 
April 23 with the Chief of Police for Manicaland, who had 
promised to "try to convince" the demonstrators to leave. 
His attempts to reach Chombo so far had proven unsuccessful. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
12.  (U) An MDC stronghold in the last parliamentary 
election, Manicaland has long been a source of critics of 
ruling party policy outside and inside the party, including 
Morgan Tsvangirai, Simba Makoni, and Edgar Tekere.  The 
ruling party had made a well-publicized priority of retaking 
the province, which is the MDC's only bastion of 
predominantly rural non-Ndebele constituencies the ruling 
party considers its bread and butter.  Mutare's mayoral 
contest last year was marked by violence -- the Kagurabadza's 
car was demolished and MDC activists were beaten and knifed 
-- in spite of a "campaign code of conduct" sponsored by the 
churches and publicly subscribed to by both party's 
candidates. 
 
13.  (C) Recent developments in Manicaland bear testament to 
the comprehensiveness and relentlessness of the ruling 
party's urban-rural assault strategy.  While most prominent 
in Manicaland, strong-arm tactics continue to be evident 
throughout the country in forms too numerous and imaginative 
to recount here.  The MDC's continuing inability to protect 
its activists from systematic beatings, its mayors from 
dismissal, its MPs from arrest (recent arrest of MP Masaiti 
to be reported septel) are a significant factor in the 
public's sharp drift from politics.  Indeed, the party's 
fundamental challenge remains as it has from its inception: 
how does a democratic party committed to non-violence contest 
a liberation party impervious to international criticism and 
unafraid to employ all tools at its disposal -- violence, 
domination of the media, monopoly on all means of coercion -- 
to remain in power? 
SULLIVAN