Dell wanted 200 more names added to the sanctions list

United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell, arguing that sanctions against Zimbabwe were working and there were increasing signs that President Robert Mugabe’s regime was crumbling and fragmenting, proposed to add more than 200 names to the United States sanctions list.

The list already contained most of President Robert Mugabe’s top lieutenants, their wives and children.

Dell proposed to add the names of senior members of the Zimbabwe Election Commission, the Zimbabwe Republic Police, ZANU-PF provincial chairpersons, the senior leadership of the security forces, including the police, military, and intelligence branches.

He also proposed to include the heads of key state-owned enterprises because this would serve to limit the government’s ability to use these parastatals as a tool of oppression and revenue-generation.

The ambassador, however, also wanted some senior moderate and reform-minded ZANU-PF officials to be excluded from the sanctions.

“Progressive individuals whom we have been able to cultivate should not be subject to the sanctions as it would jeopardize our ability to influence these individuals to work toward reforming the GOZ (government of Zimbabwe) and ZANU-PF from the inside,” he said.

“Moreover, granting exceptions would encourage more insiders to embrace reform and further wedges within the regime. This is consistent with past policy of excluding selected individuals from the financial and visa sanctions.”

Full cable:

Viewing cable 07HARARE232, RECOMMENDATIONS TO STRENGTHEN FINANCIAL AND VISA

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R 201125Z MAR 07

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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1749

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HARARE 000232

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

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AF/S FOR S. HILL

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN

ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU

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E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: CVIS EFIN PGOV PHUM PINR PREL ZI

SUBJECT: RECOMMENDATIONS TO STRENGTHEN FINANCIAL AND VISA

SANCTIONS

——–

Overview

——–

¶1. (SBU) U.S. sanctions have played a key role in putting

pressure on the Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ). Post believes

that now is the time to deepen and expand the financial and

visa sanctions, and to apply further pressure on the regime

as it increasingly shows signs of crumbling and fragmenting.

We propose to aggressively target senior GOZ and ZANU-PF

officials by adding more than 200 names of individuals to the

sanctions lists who meet the current criteria for inclusion

in the sanctions regime. Post also recommends an amendment

to the current Executive Order on visa sanctions to add the

children of Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) to the

list. Many SDNs send their children abroad, including the

U.S., to study while at the same destroying the educational

opportunities for other Zimbabwean children. (Note. The

current Executive Orders already permit children’s inclusion

on the financial list. End Note.) To account for rapidly

unfolding events, Posts recommends that the sanction process

be streamlined so that we can more rapidly add new names as

information arises. End Overview.

————

The Criteria

————

¶2. (SBU) In his Zimbabwe Proclamation of February 22, 2002,

the President laid out criteria for barring particular

Zimbabweans from entry into the United States. The criteria

included senior members of the government of Robert Mugabe

and other Zimbabwean nationals who formulate, implement, or

benefit from policies that undermine or injure Zimbabwe’s

democratic institutions or impede the transition to a

multi-party democracy; persons who through their business

dealings with Zimbabwe government officials derive

significant financial benefit from policies that undermine or

injure Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions or impede the

transition to a multi-party democracy; and the spouses of

persons described above.

¶3. (SBU) In his Executive Order of November 23, 2005, the

President laid out criteria for blocking the property of

individuals found undermining Zimbabwe’s democratic processes

and institutions. The criteria includes individuals or

organizations found to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic

institutions and processes; have assisted, sponsored, or

provided financial, material, or technological support to

these entities; to be owned, controlled, or acting on behalf

of a sanctions target; or to be an immediate family member of

a sanctions target.

——————–

Post’s Proposed List

——————–

¶4. (SBU) Over time Post has developed a detailed list of

individuals that we judge worthy of adding to the financial

and visa sanctions lists. Below is an overview of the

categories of individuals we suggest adding to the lists. We

have posted a detailed Excel spreadsheet of the suggested

revisions to our classified website and emailed a copy to

AF/S. Our classified website can be accessed at:

http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/af/harare/

¶5. (SBU) With the exception of the extension to spouses (in

HARARE 00000232 002 OF 004

the visa criteria) and to immediate family members (in the

financial criteria), the criteria are nearly identical. Post

therefore recommends that the two lists be made identical, to

the extent possible, and that individuals subject to one form

of sanction be automatically be added to the other form of

sanction.

—————–

Names To Be Added

—————–

¶6. (SBU) As the ruling party for the past 26 years, ZANU-PF

has placed its firm imprint onto the decision-making

processes of the GOZ. For example, any policy decisions are

first discussed by the party structures of Central Committee

and Politburo and then passed on to the Cabinet (consisting

of Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and Provincial Governors) for

comment and approval. In this process, any member of the

Central Committee, Politburo, or Cabinet has an opportunity

to suggest, support, and/or oppose particular policies

brought before each body. As such, each member of the

Central Committee, Politburo, and Cabinet has a direct hand

in GOZ policy formulation. Therefore, we propose that all

Central Committee, Politburo and Cabinet members that are not

currently on the financial and visa sanctions lists be added.

¶7. (SBU) In addition, we propose inclusion of the most

senior officials of key GOZ institutions not already on the

lists. The senior members of the Zimbabwe Election

Commission, the Zimbabwe Republic Police, and ZANU-PF

provincial chairpersons merit inclusion for their role in

suborning the integrity of Zimbabwean elections. The senior

leadership of the security forces, to include the police,

military, and intelligence branches, should also be included

for their decisions to apply Zimbabwean law in a manner that

violates human rights, and undermines democracy and the rule

of law.

¶8. (SBU) Post further recommends that heads of key

state-owned enterprises be added to the lists. Parastatal

heads are government employees, and are among the most

corrupt and venal of the civil servants. Targeting

parastatal heads would also serve to limit the GOZ’s ability

to use these parastatals as a tool of oppression and

revenue-generation. Consistent with prior policy decisions

we do not propose extending sanctions against parastatals

more broadly to avoid the dilemma that doing so might harm

the people of Zimbabwe. But there is great symbolic value in

including the senior executives as individuals.

———————————-

Inclusion of Children on Visa List

———————————-

¶9. (SBU) The GOZ and ZANU-PF have systematically crippled

Zimbabwe’s once-promising educational system, and have shown

a callous disregard for the plight of the country’s most

unfortunate schoolchildren, who do not have the same

opportunity to travel abroad for schooling as the children of

elites. At the same time, a significant number of senior GOZ

and ZANU-PF officials avoid the consequences of their

depredations by sending their children to the U.S. and

foreign destinations for education.

¶10. (SBU) A significant number of Zimbabwean critics of the

GOZ, while praising U.S. policy toward Zimbabwe, have

lamented that children of ZANU-PF officials have not been

HARARE 00000232 003 OF 004

included. These critics have told us that nothing would

catch the attention of ZANU-PF officials more quickly than

including their children on the sanctions lists. Denying

visas to children of these officials and refusing to renew

the visas of these children already in the U.S., in addition

to placing these children on the financial sanctions list,

would send a powerful message to the GOZ and ZANU-PF

hierarchy.

¶11. (SBU) We therefore recommend an amendment to the current

Executive Order on visa sanctions to add the children of SDNs

to the list. Our consular section already has the names and

identifying information of more than 30 children of SDNs who

are believed to have traveled to the U.S. and is working to

expand the list. Nine of these children are studying in the

U.S. and our consular section has heard reliable information

that additional children are studying in the U.S. under

tourist visas, leading us to believe that there are

additional children of SDNs studying in the U.S. We will

continue to work on updating this information. U.S.

leadership on this question could convince the U.K. and the

Australians among others, to also sanction the leadership’s

children.

¶12. (SBU) We also recommend revoking the visas of children

currently in the U.S., in addition to refusing to issue

future visas. Those currently in the U.S. tend to be the

children of ZANU-PF’s old guard, who are most opposed to

reform. Meanwhile, if the sanctions are not applied to those

who currently have visas, the measure would primarily affect

the families of the younger generation of ZANU-PF leaders,

who are not as resistent to reform.

———-

Exceptions

———-

¶13. (SBU) Among the categories of individuals listed above

who deserve inclusion in the financial and visa sanctions

list, there are a number of moderate and reform-minded

individuals for whom Post recommends that exceptions be made.

Progressive individuals whom we have been able to cultivate

should not be subject to the sanctions as it would jeopardize

our ability to influence these individuals to work toward

reforming the GOZ and ZANU-PF from the inside. Moreover,

granting exceptions would encourage more insiders to embrace

reform and further wedges within the regime. This is

consistent with past policy of excluding selected individuals

from the financial and visa sanctions.

——————-

Names To Be Deleted

——————-

¶14. (SBU) We also recommend removing individuals from the

lists who no longer meet the criteria of the sanctions

regimes. Many individuals were initially added for

association with former activities in the DRC and the flawed

parliamentary election in March 2005, but have no current,

significant political or financial role in the GOZ. These

individuals should be removed.

¶15. (SBU) Post recommends that deceased sanctioned

individuals remain on the financial sanctions list to prevent

family members from benefiting from the ill-gotten estate,

but that they be removed from the visa list.

HARARE 00000232 004 OF 004

————————

Streamlining The Process

————————

¶16. (SBU) Since the inception of the financial and visa

sanctions against targeted Zimbabwean officials an ad hoc

process of suggesting and approving revisions has developed.

As the lists have grown, however, this process has created

confusion and led to an increasing divergence between the two

lists. Moreover, this method is cumbersome, making it

difficult to cope with the increasingly rapid pace at which

we are collecting new names for consideration. To formalize

this process and to make the addition of new names more

nimble, Post recommends that AF/S maintain the authoritative

list for both the financial and visa sanctions. Post also

recommends that AF/S be charged with leading the inter-agency

process of reviewing the suggested revision. Post will

continue to collect names of individuals who merit inclusion

on the list and will then forward these names to AF/S for

consideration.

DELL

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