US embassy cable - 03HARARE1179

UNCLAS HARARE 001179 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PDPA DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS AND AF/S RAYNOR 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT MASS ACTION IN RETROSPECT; HARARE 
 
  1.   Two journalists working for the independent short-wave 
      radio station Voice of the People (VOP) were detained and 
      beaten by ZANU-PF youths and war veterans at the beginning 
      (June 2) of the week-long mass protests organized by the 
      opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).  The 
      assailants confiscated the journalists' mobile phones and 
      minidisk recorders.  Shorai Katiwa and Martin Chimenya were 
      attacked at the University of Zimbabwe while covering a 
      demonstration by students who intended to march to downtown 
      Harare.  According to John Masuku, the Coordinator of VOP 
      who spoke to the MISA-Zimbabwe (Media Institute of Southern 
      Africa), the journalists were taken to Borrowdale Police 
      Station for interrogation.  From Borrowdale they were taken 
      to the ZANU-PF Headquarters in the city center where they 
      were further interrogated and beaten. 
 
  2.   Eight men wearing police uniforms and driving four 
      police cars raided the home of Edwina Spicer, a documentary 
      film producer, at midnight on June 6. Without producing a 
      search warrant, the unidentified intruders confiscated 
      video cameras, recording equipment, a fax machine and 
      Z$50,000.  Mrs. Spicer is currently away on holiday in 
      England, but her gardener, maid and security guard were all 
      beaten during the raid.  The break-in at the Spicer 
      residence has come under fire from MISA, who said in a June 
      7 statement that "the manner in which this search was 
      carried out clearly spells out the danger media workers are 
      under" in Zimbabwe. 
 
SULLIVAN