US embassy cable - 04HARARE1734

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 001734 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
AF/S FOR BNEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE, D.TEITELBAUM 
PARIS FOR C. NEARY 
AID FOR DCHA/OFDA GOTTLIEB, KHANDANGLE 
AFR/SA FOR FLEURET, COPSON, LOKEN 
 
E.  O.  12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, EAID, ZI, Humanitarian Situation 
SUBJECT: Squeeze on Humanitarian Efforts Increasing 
 
REF: A. HARARE 1594 
     B. HARARE 1563 
     C. HARARE 1416 AND PREVIOUS 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  GOZ obstruction of international 
organizations, especially in the area of assistance to 
internally displaced persons, continues.  The GOZ has 
requested that the UN close its Relief and Recovery Unit and 
is blocking access to newly displaced farmers resettled on 
former commercial farms as well as ex-commercial farm 
workers.  The government media has stepped up its portrayal 
of international organizations and their employees as 
interfering with sovereignty and promoting regime change. 
END SUMMARY 
 
2. (SBU)  United Nations Resident Representative and 
Humanitarian Coordinator Victor Angelo told the diplomatic 
community in late September that the UN had closed its 
Relief and Recovery Unit (RRU) on September 2, at the GOZ's 
insistence.  The RRU had met with significant resistance 
from the GOZ, and its operations had been progressively 
constrained in the months preceding the GOZ's request, with 
RRU staff often prohibited from traveling outside Harare. 
The RRU, funded through the UN Office for the Coordination 
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), focused on coordination of 
humanitarian activities in Zimbabwe, including information 
collection and sharing, monitoring of internally displaced 
persons, and liaison with the GOZ.  Donors have met several 
times since then to discuss how to address the need for 
coordination.  Two USG-supported OCHA staff remain at the UN 
offices, but there is no official OCHA office in Zimbabwe. 
 
3. (SBU)  As reported (ref A), in a series of "second 
generation" evictions, police and local government in the 
Banket region evicted A1 farmers, former communal area 
subsistence farmers who settled on commercial farms under 
the GOZ's fast-track land reform program.  Over the past 
week, a new series of evictions of A1 farmers began at four 
former commercial farms in Mashonaland West, and local 
government officials gave out notices of eviction to A1 
farmers on another farm in Mashonaland East.  The 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the 
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been 
involved in assessing the status of the displaced persons in 
the Banket region.  The GOZ reportedly told IOM and ICRC not 
to assist the newly displaced farmers in Mashonaland West 
and East, because it would be seen as encouraging farmers to 
stay on or near farms instead of returning to their home 
villages.  IOM was to meet with the Permanent Secretary in 
the Ministry of Social Welfare to discuss the increasing 
number of displaced persons and the status of an IDP task 
force the GOZ promised to set up.  Meanwhile, thousands of 
ex-commercial farm workers remain displaced and homeless, 
and access to many of them even by IOM or ICRC is not 
possible. 
 
4. (SBU)  On October 3, the government-controlled Sunday 
Mail newspaper reported that UN Resident Representative 
Angelo had been recalled because of reports that he was 
"meddling in the country's internal politics."  The article 
further accused Angelo of working with the MDC to effect 
regime change in Zimbabwe, a charge that continues to be 
leveled daily in the press against non-governmental 
organizations.  The UN ran several statements in the press 
denouncing the article and explaining that Angelo is 
departing at the scheduled end of his term in Zimbabwe.  The 
Sunday Mail article also quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs 
Stan Mudenge as saying that negative reporting on Zimbabwe 
by UN elements "could lead to the collapse of the UN system 
in Zimbabwe." 
 
5. (SBU)  Over the past several months, at least one 
international NGO, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), has had 
difficulty getting extensions of Temporary Employment 
Permits for its international staff, which the GOZ was 
issuing only in monthly increments.  In late September, the 
Immigration Office advised CRS that permits for three 
international staff would not be renewed.  The immigration 
official told CRS that it could appeal but that, if the 
appeal were denied, the staff in question would need to 
leave the country immediately.  Other international NGOs 
have heard rumors that Temporary Employment Permits will be 
denied for their expatriate staff, at least until after the 
March elections, but have not received any official 
notification. 
 
6. (SBU) COMMENT:  Like the recently gazetted NGO bill (refs 
B, C), the GOZ's attempt to hamper international 
organizations' humanitarian activities appears to be an 
effort to limit access by outsiders to rural areas in 
anticipation of the March 2005 elections.  The GOZ wants to 
control outside information. It also wants to control 
humanitarian assistance, which dampens dependence on the GOZ 
and is perceived by many in the countryside as associated 
with the opposition.  Ramped up GOZ efforts to control 
outside access and influence in Zimbabwe underscore the 
primacy of domestic political anxieties over GOZ interest in 
burnishing its international image.  The leadership likely 
assesses that such measures will provoke a negative reaction 
from the West but not from the region, which is the 
principal focus of its modest charm offensive.  END COMMENT. 
 
WEISENFELD