US embassy cable - 05HARARE182

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000182 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
AF/SA  D. MOZENA, B. NEULING 
AFR/SA P. FLEURET, L. PIERSON, M.COPSON 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE, 
  D. TEITELBAUM 
PRETORIA FOR T. TRENKLE 
 
E.  O.  12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PREL, PHUM, PGOV, AMGT, ECON, XA, AFIN, ZI 
SUBJECT: SACC AND IDASA READY TO LAUNCH ZIMABABWE ELECTION 
OBSERVATION 
 
1.   (SBU) One day after the the 
Governament of Zimbabwe's (GOZ) 
announcement of March 31 as the date for 
general Parliamentary elections, a group 
consisting of the South African Council of 
Churches (SACC) and the Institute for 
Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) quitely 
traveled to Harare to finalize plans for 
election monitoring.  The consortium, 
which is operating with USAID funds, is 
headed by Reverand Molefe Tsele, Secretary 
General of SACC, and Paul Graham, 
Executive Director of IDASA.  Other South 
African members include the Catholic 
Bishops Conference (CBC), the Center for 
Policy Studies (CPS), and the Institute 
for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR). 
 
2.  (SBU) In meeting with the Ambassador 
and USAID staff on February 3rd, the group 
laid out a comprehensive plan for election 
monitoring, including: 
 
A.  (SBU) Five different small delegations 
quietly coming to Zimbabwe over the next 
four weeks for relatively short periods (3- 
4 days each) to assess the overall 
electoral environment.  These groups will 
look at specific sub-sectors of society 
including, civil society, the churches, 
gender organizations and political 
parties. As a result of the recent 
expulsion of the Congress of South African 
Trade Unions, a group of non-South African 
but regional labor organizations may also 
visit under the auspices of the SACC/IDASA 
consortium. 
 
B.  (SBU) Four medium-term monitors will 
plan to arrive quietly at the end of 
February or early March.  They will stay 
through the election and travel around the 
country.  These monitors will be election 
specialists from South Africa, Kenya and 
Nigeria who have worked in numerous 
elections aound Africa. 
 
C.(SBU) Fifty poll watchers will arrive 
four to five days before the elections, 
consisting of people from all over the 
region.  The hope is that the SACC and 
IDASA consortium will receive official 
accreditation, but if not, they will 
consider "donating" the poll watchers to 
another group that does receive 
accreditation or, alternatively, bringing 
them into Zimbabwe quietly. 
 
3.   (SBU) There remains a great deal of 
uncertainity  regarding how the GOZ will 
handle election observation teams as well 
as how the official SADC election 
observers will be constituted.  Reverand 
Tsele and Mr. Graham indicated that they 
 
SIPDIS 
will continue to explore the process for 
official accreditation, but remain 
flexible to adapt to the evolving 
situation.  The overall goal of the group 
will remain to bring a broad cross-section 
of civil society groups from the region 
into Zimbabawe to objectively observe the 
election environment and inform the 
ultimate assessment of whether the 
elections are free and fair. 
 
4.   (SBU) The group recognized that the 
elections will not solve Zimbabwe's 
fundamental constitutional problems of 
excessive, unchecked executive power 
exercised by Robert Mugabe.  They, 
nontheless, feel that their work has begun 
to generate increased regional civil 
society interest in Zimbabawe that will 
extend beyond the March 31 election. 
Hopefully, these regional groups can 
continue to exert pressure on SADC 
governments to push for democratic change 
in Zimbabwe, but, to date, there has been 
no evidence that SADC governments are 
willing to press the GOZ to mend its ways. 
 
5. (SBU)  This project is being funded by 
a USD 250,000 grant from USAID, using a 
combination of funds from the RCSA and the 
bilateral mission in Zimbabwe. 
DELL