US embassy cable - 03HARARE214

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 000214 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON FOR CGURNEY 
PARIS FOR CNEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, ASEC, ZI 
SUBJECT: HARARE RESIDENTS CLASH WITH RIOT POLICE 
 
REF: A) HARARE 77 B) HARARE 42 
 
Classified By: political section chief Matt Harrington.  Reasons: 1.5 ( 
B) and (D). 
 
1.  (U) Riot police on January 29 clashed with several 
hundred Harare residents gathered in the city center for a 
meeting with Mayor of Harare Elias Mudzuri, who represents 
the opposition MDC.  The meeting had been planned -- and 
well-publicized -- more than a week in advance, and was to 
discuss the variety of challenges facing the city, including 
water shortages. The DATT and poloffs were prevented from 
entering Town House by a senior police officer, who advised 
them that the meeting had been cancelled and they should 
summon their driver to collect them.  Others who arrived for 
the same meeting were told the same thing.  A walk around the 
block revealed a heavy deployment of approximately 75 riot 
police -- many of them equipped with helmets, AK-47's, tear 
gas canisters, and batons.   A crowd comprising hundreds of 
mostly young men gathered outside the gate which encircled 
Town House.  A confrontation soon ensued inside the gates 
between an individual apparently angry that people were not 
being admitted and the senior police officer.  The crowd 
quickly became agitated at the police's manhandling of this 
individual, jeering at the officers involved and throwing 
bottles, stones, and bricks.  The police responded 
immediately by firing tear gas into the crowd, which 
dispersed quickly. 
 
2.  (U) The Mayor subsequently told us that police had 
authorized him to hold the meeting so long as it occurred 
inside, not on the front steps as planned.  The police, 
however, cancelled it at the last minute, citing concerns 
about the Mayor's safety.  After the situation calmed down, 
police asked the Mayor to accompany them to the Harare 
Central police station, but he declined to do so, instead 
returning to his office.  As of 4:00 p.m. on January 29, 
police were still milling around outside his office, and 
Mudzuri was bracing himself for his second arrest in two 
weeks (ref A), although it is unclear what the police would 
charge him with. 
 
3.  (C) Comment: MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's special 
advisor told us that the MDC had devised this meeting as a 
legitimate reason to convene large numbers of disgruntled 
residents in the city center.  The police clearly considered 
it a provocation and demonstrated their determination to 
quash any protests by deploying in large numbers and with 
overwhelming force.  Although the turnout of residents was 
impressive, the crowd's rapid dispersal at the first sign of 
danger could not have been an encouraging sign for those in 
the MDC advocating mass action as the principal means of 
confronting the GOZ.  Mayor Mudzuri is beginning to gain 
quite a following from those pleased with his in-your-face 
stance toward the Government and its tactics of intimidation, 
as more Zimbabweans -- including some in the MDC -- begin to 
question the effectiveness of Morgan Tsvangirai's quieter 
approach. 
SULLIVAN