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Wilfred Mhanda, the leader of the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform, started to restore the good name of war veterans, told United States embassy officials that war veterans leader Chenjerai Hunzvi was not a genuine war veteran and was actually working for President Robert Mugabe but he could be brought under control in five minutes if his services were no longer needed.

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The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front was ebullient after winning the Bikita West by-election which it had lost to the Movement for Democratic Change the previous year.

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War veterans went on a rampage country-wide and besieged the offices of The Daily News and confiscated copies of the paper from vendors and harassed striking civil servants.

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War veterans including their leaders Chenjerai Hunzvi and Joseph Chinotimba invaded Bikita to crank up the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front ahead of the Bikita West by-election.

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President Robert Mugabe was like a father who had betrayed his children and was no longer worthy to be a father. This was the view of newly elected Movement for Democratic Change legislator for Nyanga, Evelyn Masaiti when she joined parliament in 2000.

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In just four years Chenjerai Hunzvi rose from an obscure medical doctor to lead the war veterans association, though he admitted he had never been to the front. The association was dormant at the time but Hunzvi propelled it to greater heights, forcing the government to pay them huge lumpsum payments and pensions when it did not have money. He also became one of the most feared people in the country and the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s point man to win them votes in areas where support was waning especially after the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change. But within a year of being elected to Parliament, and spearheading the farm invasions that saw scores of white commercial farmers being driven off the land, he was dead. There are just over 20 Wikileaks cables on him. Here is the first batch.

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Commercial farmers told United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Tom McDonald that the only effective tool that could turn President Robert Mugabe around was the threat of a total cut off of fuel and electricity by South Africa.

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Police evicted war veterans from a farm on the outskirts of Harare and set their makeshift huts ablaze raising hopes that they might finally cut war veterans leader Chenjerai Hunzvi to size.

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The United States embassy considered war veterans leader Chenjerai Hunzvi as one of the big losers when he failed to make it to President Robert Mugabe’s cabinet after the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s narrow victory over the Movement for Democratic Change in 2000.

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The Prime Minister and Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai has fought for democracy in Zimbabwe since he became secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions in the 1980s. It was in that role that he was catapulted to the MDC. He has the highest number of Wikileaks cables released on Zimbabwe, more than 800. But whether it was for better or worse, only the public can decide. Here are the first 150.

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