War veterans and Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front youths were on the rampage countrywide especially in the former ZANU-PF controlled provinces beating up suspected Movement for Democratic Change supporters and forcing them to attend ZANU-PF rallies.
About 450 victims were reported to be seeking treatment or were being prevented from doing so, just three weeks after March 2008 the elections.
Some of the victims had been abducted from their homes and beaten at ZANU-PF torture camps.
Hundreds of opposition supporters had fled their homes out of fear.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 08HARARE359, STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE CONTINUES; VICTIMS
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Reference ID |
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Classification |
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VZCZCXRO3690
OO RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0359/01 1140747
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 230747Z APR 08 ZDS ALL POST NUM SVC REQUESTING
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2814
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1932
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 1937
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 2059
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0622
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1336
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 1693
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2115
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 4546
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1194
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC//DHO-7//
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK//DOOC/ECMO/CC/DAO/DOB/DOI//
RUZEHAA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE//ECJ23-CH/ECJ5M//
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 HARARE 000359
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN
DCHA/AA FOR MIKE HESS
AFR/AA FOR KATE ALMQUIST AND FRANKLIN MOORE
AFR/SA FOR ERIC LOKEN, LORIE DOBBINS, JENNIFER KOLE
OFDA FOR KY LUU, ANNE CONVERY, AND TRESJA DENYSENKO
PRETORIA FOR JWESSEL, OFDA
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/23/2018
TAGS: PHUM KDEM PGOV PREL ASEC ZI
SUBJECT: STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE CONTINUES; VICTIMS
DISPLACED
REF: A. HARARE 00331
¶B. HARARE 00343
HARARE 00000359 001.6 OF 004
Classified By: AMBASSADOR JAMES D. MCGEE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B & D)
——–
SUMMARY
——–
¶1. (U) Gangs of war veterans and ZANU-PF youth continue a
state-sponsored terror campaign in rural areas burning homes,
beating opposition supporters in public, and forcing
attendance at ZANU-PF rallies. ZANU-PF thugs, and some
security forces, are also victimizing and intimidating urban
opposition supporters. Over 450 victims have requirQAs&Qz[}t sought treatment or have been prevented from
doing so.
¶2. (U) Some victims describe being abducted from their homes
and beaten at ZANU-PF torture camps. Hundreds of opposition
supporters have fled their homes out of fear. Opposition and
human rights groups report shortages of critical supplies and
resources necessary to assist the growing population of
internally displaced persons (IDPs). Post is working closely
with other international donors and our partners to assist.
END SUMMARY.
————————–
A Tidal Wave of Casualties
————————–
¶3. (SBU) MDC-Tsvangirai Secretary General Tendai Biti told
reporters at an April 20 press conference in South Africa
that 10 MDC activists had been killed and more than 500
victimized by ZANU-PF supporters and uniformed security
forces since the March 29 elections. Those targeted include
opposition members, polling agents, and party office bearers.
We have been able to confirm only one death to date (Reftel
A.).
¶4. (C) The Counseling Services Unit (CSU), a local NGO that
provides medical and social services to victims of
state-violence, has treated 456 victims since the March 29
elections — including over 100 cases that required
hospitalization and surgical procedures. Dr. Frances
Lovemore, director at CSU, told us on April 22 that CSU
doctors were having trouble keeping up with the “tidal wave
of casualties” coming in for medical treatment. Moreover,
Dr. Lovemore was concerned with two disturbing incidents in
the past few days. First, an ambulance CSU dispatched to
pick up a victim in Kotwa district in Mashonaland East
province was chased away by ZANU-PF supporters and followed
back to Harare by an unmarked truck, typically used by
suspected state intelligence officers. We also have received
additional reports of ZANU-PF supporters preventing victims
from seeking medical attention. Second, for unknown
purposes, a central intelligence officer (CIO) attempted to
gain access to victims hospitalized at a local Harare
hospital.
———————————-
Embassy Collects Harrowing Stories
———————————-
HARARE 00000359 002.2 OF 004
¶5. (SBU) In addition to the flood of reports from opposition
and local human rights groups, Post has collected other
accounts of violence firsthand. On April 19 and 20, EmbOffs
from USAID visited Mutare urban, Nyanga, and Chipinge
districts in Manicaland province to conduct interviews with
local opposition officials and victims and to assess the
level of need for humanitarian assistance. (NOTE: The vast
majority of post-election violence has taken place in
Manicaland, Masvingo, and Mashonaland East and West provinces
— former ZANU-PF strongholds where the opposition made
significant gains in these elections. END NOTE.) EmbOffs
obtained photos of IDPs and victims of beatings and torture,
as well as of victim’s homes which were burned by gangs of
war vets and ZANU-PF youths.
¶6. (SBU) In Mutare, the embassy team came across 157 IDPs at
the local MDC-Tsvangirai party offices. At the time of the
visit, there were 106 children under the age of 12 and 113
adults (many of them elderly) camped in the open on the
office grounds — sharing one toilet and minimal available
water. The group was in need of food, cooking oil, tents,
portable toilets, and money for transportation. The IDPs
were all farm workers and their families from the nearby
Muniya farm. According to the victims, Muniya Panganai, a
war vet who seized the farm in 2006, began evictions on April
15 as punishment because the area had overwhelmingly voted
for the MDC. The acting Officer in Charge of the Mutare
police (Mr. Goronga – first name not known) supervised the
evictions at gunpoint.
¶7. (C) At the MDC Offices the team also spoke with the MDC
District Security Officer for Nyanga, Ismael Nyandowe, who on
April 17 had been beaten with iron bars by 30 ZANU-PF youth.
Nyandowe suffered a fractured left foot and head wounds.
Among the assailants were two army soldiers, although
Nyandowe said the majority of the group was made up of war
vets and ZANU-PF youth. Outgoing ZANU-PF MP Paul Kadzinga
was said to be coordinating the violence in the area.
Nyandowe also reported that war vets had established at least
five camps in the Nyanga district for training ZANU-PF youth
and where beatings and torture of MDC supporters take place.
At least 15 MDC activists had reported being abducted and
beaten at camps in the area since April 15.
¶8. (C) In Nyanga, EmbOffs spoke with Methodist ministers who
told us there was a high level of violence and intimidation
in the area. At one point during our discussion, a ZANU-PF
vehicle passed by and the ministers expressed fear for their
own safety and quickly left. A bishop at the Holy Cross
Catholic church also confirmed stories of violence. EmbOffs
received reports from representatives of Zimbabwe Community
Development Trust, a local NGO operating in the area, that
war vets had lists of local election observers and opposition
party polling agents in Nyanga who were targeted for violence.
¶9. (C) In Chipinge, EmbOffs met with civil society
representatives from the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA) and local MDC-Tsvangirai officials. Both groups
confirmed that many people were being victimized in the rural
areas. One MDC activist in Chipinge said he had been
attacked on April 15 by six ZANU-PF youth and severely
beaten. His attackers kept asking if he had “changed”
(“chinga” in Shona means change and was part of the
MDC-Tsvangirai campaign slogan). There were also reports
that war vets and ZANU-PF youth were setting up roadblocks to
HARARE 00000359 003.2 OF 004
prevent maize from arriving in Chipinge, and that no one
could obtain maize from the local Grain Marketing Board
(GMB), the state-monopoly on grain distribution, unless they
had a “letter from the war veterans.”
¶10. (C) Embassy local employees have received reports from
family members in rural areas that village headmen are
forcing the public to attend daily ZANU-PF rallies. Anyone
who fails to attend a rally is visited during the night by
war vets and ZANU-PF youth and beaten.
——————————————— —-
Soldiers, Police Dole Out Beatings In Urban Areas
——————————————— —-
¶11. (C) In addition to widespread attacks in rural areas,
violence and intimidation involving military and police
officers is taking place in urban areas as well. For
example, on April 17, a member of the Embassy’s local
security staff was driving through Chitungwiza, a
high-density suburb and opposition stronghold outside Harare,
and witnessed five uniformed soldiers with AK-47 rifles
assaulting two pedestrians. The soldiers instructed the two
pedestrians to lie on the ground and then severely beat them
with truck fan belts. Another 20 soldiers — all carrying
AK-47s and fan belts — were seen moving in groups of two
throughout other parts of the area that same morning.
Numerous photos received from opposition and human rights
groups have shown victims with severe lash marks on their
backs and buttocks.
¶12. (C) Also in Chitungwiza, on April 20 at approximately
3:00 am, a group of 12 uniformed men entered the home of
Evelyn Jaka, a PSI nurse counselor (PSI is a USAID HIV/AIDS
program partner). The assailants forced Jaka and her family
outside the house where they were blindfolded and made to lie
on the ground. Jaka’s 15-year-old son was assaulted and then
taken away; he was returned an hour later shaken but not
injured. The assailants also took Jaka’s husband. He was
released at 8:00 am the same day from a nearby police station
and admitted to a local hospital for injuries resulting from
being severely beaten with iron bars while in custody.
——————-
State Says Prove It
——————-
¶13. (U) In response to the loud outcry from the opposition,
human rights groups, and some foreign governments (including
the United States and the United Kingdom), the April 22
headline of the government-run newspaper The Herald demanded
“Prove violence claims — Govt.” Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa, rumored to be one of the senior ZANU-PF officials
orchestrating the terror campaign, was quoted as saying that
it was possible that the MDC-Tsvangirai party “was behind the
cases of political violence as a part of a propaganda
campaign to justify international intervention in the
country.”
——-
COMMENT
——-
¶14. (C) Post is working with the European Commission, the
British, and other like-minded international donors to
compile joint findings on post-election violence and the
HARARE 00000359 004.2 OF 004
potential humanitarian crisis which could be passed to SADC
and Africa Union leaders to make the case for their greater
involvement in resolving the Zimbabwe crisis. SADC has
focused, as at the Lusaka Summit, on the delay in announcing
election results, and has not addressed the continuing and
growing violence. Additionally, we have asked our local
human rights and humanitarian assistance partners to deploy
resources to volatile rural and urban areas to assist victims
and IDPs (Reftel B.).
¶15. (C) While there have been some reports of violence
perpetrated by the military and police, we believe that
ZANU-PF youth and war vets are mainly responsible and that
this violence is orchestrated by ZANU-PF party structures.
There are isolated reports that police have arrested ZANU-PF
members alleged to have committed criminal violence against
MDC supporters. More common, as reported by our Embassy
team, is inaction by the police in failing to investigate
reports and arrest suspects; for the most part police have
not been involved in violence.
¶16. (C) Despite the disturbing reign of terror in rural areas
and some townships, Harare remains calm and the Embassy
continues to conduct business as usual. END COMMENT.
DHANANI
(53 VIEWS)
