US embassy cable - 02HARARE2001

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 002001 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2012 
TAGS: PHUM, ZI 
SUBJECT: LEADING HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST ARRESTED 
 
REF: HARARE 1984 
 
Classified By: political section chief Matt Harrington.  Reasons: 1.5 ( 
B) and (D). 
 
1.  (C) On August 29, police detained Frances Lovemore, 
acting director of Zimbabwe's leading human rights 
organization, Amani Trust.  She was charged with violating 
the section of the repressive Public Order and Security Act 
(POSA) which prohibits publication of "falsehoods" 
prejudicial to the state.  After questioning her at the 
Harare Central Police Station in the company of a lawyer, 
police bundled her into a vehicle and took her to an 
undisclosed location.  She was detained incommunicado 
overnight, and her attorneys were not provided access to her 
until late in the morning on August 30, after the 
Attorney-General's office intervened at the behest of her 
lawyer. 
 
2.  (C) The saga began in the morning of August 29, when 
police detectives appeared at the offices of Amani Trust with 
a warrant authorizing a search for "subversive materials" in 
Lovemore's possession.  Police searched her office and 
confiscated a report from Amnesty International, a copy of 
the UN Convention Against Torture, and a number of political 
violence reports produced regularly by the UN Human Rights 
NGO Forum.  Lovemore was then taken to Harare Central Police 
station, where she was questioned about international media 
reports quoting Lovemore as saying rape was being used by 
ZANU-PF youth militias as a political weapon.  The group then 
returned to conduct a wider search of Amani's offices 
(ignoring the restrictions in the search warrant), and 
returned to the police station.  Lovemore was asked to sign a 
"warned and cautioned" statement, then was formally charged 
under POSA. 
 
3.  (C) Lovemore is expected to appear in court for a bail 
hearing on the morning of August 30, and the 
Attorney-General's office has told her attorney it will not 
oppose the granting of bail.  One of her attorneys told us 
that Lovemore appeared physically okay after her overnight 
detention, but was hungry because she had been provided no 
food during the previous 24 hours.  In addition, she had 
spent a very cold night in the cell, as she had not been 
given a blanket or the opportunity to obtain clothing warmer 
than the light dress she was wearing at the time of her 
arrest. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
4.  (C) Lovemore's arrest came only several hours after the 
bombing of the office of an independent radio station 
(reftel), so it was not a good day for freedom of speech in 
Zimbabwe.  Lovemore told us earlier in the week she was 
alarmed by a significant increase in the numbers of 
apparently politically-motivated rapes reported to her 
office, and she has worked hard to publicize this troubling 
development.  The Government of Zimbabwe has grown 
increasingly annoyed by the international media's focus on 
this issue, and it clearly blames Lovemore.  Although 
Jonathan Moyo and his propaganda machine have, in the past, 
leveled all sorts of venomous attacks against Amani Trust, 
this time the GOZ has upped the ante.  The outrageous 
treatment of Lovemore appears to be a shot across the bow for 
other human rights and civic organizations, and we suspect 
that a GOZ crackdown against other segments of civil society 
is not far off. 
 
SULLIVAN