US embassy cable - 02HARARE1455

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 001455 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/S, AF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, ZI 
SUBJECT: Text of Letter from Zimbabwe Opposition Leader to 
President Bush 
 
REF: Fax to AF/S 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
Not for Internet posting. 
 
1.  (SBU) On June 19, the opposition Movement for Democratic 
Change (MDC) delivered to all G-8 embassies in Harare a 
letter from its president, Morgan Tsvangirai, to their 
respective heads of government.  Below is the verbatim text 
of the letter addressed to President Bush.  A copy of the 
original is being faxed to AF/S (ref). 
 
2.  (SBU) Begin Text: 
 
Mr. George W. Bush 
President of the United States of America 
 
Dear Mr. President, 
 
I write to you on the eve of the historic Group of 8 Most 
Industralised Countries/New Partnership for African 
Development (G8/NEPAD) summit in Canada.  I would have 
welcomed an opportunity for direct consultations with you on 
various matters of mutual interest, but as you may be aware, 
I am currently prohibited to travel outside Zimbabwe. 
 
Over the past forty years or more, the story of Africa has 
been one of utmost dejection, hopelessness and despair, with 
grinding poverty seemingly defeating all possibilities for 
relief and redress.  Tragically, the African experience is 
replete with elaborate development strategies, programmes of 
action etc., but all followed by a dismal record of inaction 
and painful failure.  Lack of capacity, lack of political 
will, lack of resources, endemic corruption and bad 
governance accounted for this routine and systematic 
failure.  The cost, in terms of missed opportunities and 
indeed human life has been astronomical. 
 
However, a fortuitous convergence of circumstances, both 
within and outside the continent seems to have, at long 
last, created a rare, unprecedented and unique opportunity 
for a serious search for renewal, for a new beginning. 
NEPAD brings a message of hope to the African continent.  In 
the words of one of the greatest statesman of the twentieth 
century, albeit, in a slightly different context, for us 
NEPAD, if successfully implemented represents a vast 
cooperative effort, unparalleled in magnitude and nobility 
of purpose to satisfy the burning needs of the African 
people for economic progress, freedom from hunger and 
disease, from dictatorship and despair.  It will stand tall 
as a shining tribute to the power of the creative energies 
of free men and women - an example to the entire world that 
liberty and progress can walk hand in hand.  It will 
engender a new spirit of enterprise that will create a brave 
new continent where poverty, disease and ignorance will have 
no place.  NEPAD must not be allowed to remain at the level 
of appearances and unfulfilled hopes and promises. 
 
It is in this context that we in the Movement for Democratic 
Change (MDC) welcome the NEPAD initiative.  Here in 
Zimbabwe, in our own small-localized way, we have been 
struggling, against perilous odds, guided by the ideals of 
good governance, democracy, human rights, the rule of law 
and sustainable economic management and development.  The 
same ideals that are enshrined in, and underpin NEPAD. 
 
You will no doubt, agree with us, that is spite of the 
generally hostile political terrain, the culture of 
democratic governance is taking root in a number of African 
countries, with brave voices of agony being heard across the 
globe from a people who refuse to continue to succumb to 
dictatorship and decay.  We believe that NEPAD should play a 
critical role in strengthening these desperate voices. 
NEPAD should ensure that disease, poverty and ignorance 
would provide neither a breeding ground for, nor offer 
opportunities for regression into autocratic forms of 
governance and economic decay. 
 
However, we equally and strongly believe that Africa cannot 
meaningfully engage the international community without 
first tackling problems that threaten both regional and 
continental security and political stability.  There is or 
ought to be a direct linkage.  The litmus test lies in 
Africans ending rhetoric and taking tangible action to help 
resolve thorny issues in accordance with standards of 
conduct and performance that they have set for themselves. 
They should be judged by the standards that they have 
voluntary designed and accepted.  NEPAD provides such a set 
of standards. 
 
ZANU PF and the Mugabe regime are intensifying a programme 
of systematic violence to punish the MDC and civic 
organisations and compel them to accept the results of the 
March 2002 fraudulent presidential poll results.  All the 
material facts on the ground in Zimbabwe today indicate that 
the Mugabe regime is putting finishing touches to 
preparations for a stage-managed serious domestic conflict 
that would see the death of thousands of innocent civilians. 
 
We in the MDC stand ready for constructive dialogue that 
would lead to a peaceful resolution of the crisis facing our 
country today, but Mugabe and his associates are bent on a 
destructive path that can only degenerate into a serious 
internal conflict verging on civil war.  As Mugabe totters 
towards the sunset of his biological and political life, he 
seems determined to take Zimbabwe down with him. 
 
Zimbabwe remains NEPAD's biggest challenge.  It will test 
the sincerity and commitment of Africa's leaders to the 
concept of "peer review".  It is tragically nave in the 
extreme to expect dictators to reform and change out of 
"self-interest" alone as alluded to by the President of 
South Africa.  If this were the case, there would have been 
no Zimbabwe crisis since self-interest would have impelled 
Mugabe to disembark from his ruinous course of action.  Peer 
pressure must translate into a real cost for the maintenance 
of autocratic forms of government.  It must be seen to real 
and effective.  Dictators such as Robert Mugabe do not care 
about the general welfare of those that they rule and 
oppress.  Instead, an impoverished and hopeless people 
precisely offer the kind of environment in which dictators 
like Robert Mugabe thrive.  That is the real "self-interest" 
of Robert Mugabe.  He cannot be expected to reform himself 
out of a dictatorship, which he deliberately constructed and 
constantly nourishes. 
 
In the context of SADC it appears that so far there has not 
been any intention to take peer review seriously.  As you 
are aware, the SADC Parliamentary Forum produced the "Norms 
and Standards for Elections in the SADC Region" which was 
adopted by all SADC states, including Zimbabwe and South 
Africa, (which is one of the key movers of NEPAD) in March 
2001.  None of the Election Observer Missions from the SADC 
countries and Nigeria in particular and the African 
continent in general adhered to these norms and standards in 
their monitoring and evaluation of the Zimbabwe presidential 
poll.  The SADC Parliamentary Forum proceeded to use these 
supposedly agreed standards to monitor the Zimbabwe 
presidential polls in March 2002 and produced a damning 
report on the Zimbabwe presidential poll, while country 
Election Observer Missions produced ringing endorsements of 
what was clearly a rigged and violent poll.  It is poignant 
to note that Election Observer Missions from South Africa 
and Nigeria, whose presidents are positioning themselves as 
some of the peer review leaders, either totally ignored or 
were openly contemptuous of the SADC Parliamentary Norms and 
Standards.  This was a tragic failure to apply peer pressure 
on the Mugabe regime to abandon a systematic programme of 
violence in order to steal the presidential poll and we have 
absolutely no confidence in the renewed claim by African 
leaders that this time round, in the context of NEPAD peer 
review and pressure would be effective.  In the absence of 
any redeeming action on the part of South Africa and 
Nigeria, it is difficult to regard this renewed commitment 
to peer pressure as anything but a ruse to get NEPAD off the 
launching pad.  The leaders of South Africa and Nigeria must 
be honest with themselves, with Zimbabwe and with the 
international commitment.  If they are reluctant to apply 
meaningful peer pressure on Mugabe, what guarantee does the 
international community have that any other murderous 
African dictator would be treated differently?  Statesmen do 
not say one thing and proceed to do something totally 
different. 
 
We suggest that as a mark of seriousness and good faith, 
South Africa and Nigeria, the two key players in NEPAD with 
the most real leverage on Mugabe, should become more 
assertive and encourage Mugabe to return to the negotiating 
table.  The G8 and other international friends and well 
wishers of Zimbabwe can also offer an effective positive 
hand.  They should make it clear that the progress of NEPAD 
would be problematic unless peer pressure on the Mugabe 
regime is seen to be producing positive results. 
 
NEPAD should not offer succor and comfort to dictatorial 
regimes that are precisely the root cause of Africa's 
present predicament.  The present Government of Zimbabwe 
constitutes a serious threat to the central tenets of NEPAD. 
Peer pressure does not seem to have been applied seriously 
on the Mugabe regime.  Since 2001, many regional and 
continental missions have been to Zimbabwe, but not one of 
them has successfully pressurized Mugabe to abandon his 
naked abuse of power and his total disregard and utter 
contempt for internationally accepted norms of democracy and 
good governance.  Indeed some of these missions, such as the 
SADC Ministerial Task Force, which met in Harare in 
September 2001 openly, supported Mugabe's reckless and 
violent ways.  Periodic summits of the SADC Heads of State 
have routinely delivered messages of support for Mugabe's 
dictatorship; the present Chairman of SADC, Malawian 
President Bakili Muluzi has announced his firm intention to 
reverse the march and gains of democracy in his impoverished 
and starving country; and Zambia's presidential poll result 
remains controversial and contested.  Clearly, by its own 
record, SADC does not constitute a peer group that inspires 
confidence.  So far it does not have a demonstrable ability 
and track record of monitoring democracy and good governance 
in the region.  SADC in general and South Africa in 
particular must create a new set of bona fides to show that 
they are a serious regional peer review group.  Zimbabwe 
must be a starting point. 
 
I avail myself, Mr. President, this opportunity to renew the 
assurances of my highest consideration. 
 
I remain, 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Morgan Tsvangirai, 
President Movement for Democratic Change 
 
End Text. 
 
Sullivan