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RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 3143
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 3255
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RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000868 
 
AF/S FOR B. WALCH 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND J. HARMON 
COMMERCE FOR ROBERT TELCHIN 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM ECON ZI
 
SUBJECT: ZIM NOTES 11-02-2009 
 
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¶1.  SUMMARY 
----------- 
 
Topics of the week: 
 
- SADC Troika Visits Zimbabwe... 
- NGO Arrests and Abductions Return to Zimbabwe... 
- UN Envoy Deported... 
- Teachers Report Mounting Harassment, Militarization... 
- MDC to Push for Reform in Parliament... 
- Farm Violence Increases, Targets Black Workers... 
- Judicial Reform Conference Cancelled... 
- Amnesty International Wants SADC Action... 
- Human Rights Watch Repeats Calls to Suspend Zim from KP... 
- IMF Highlights Risks to Recovery... 
- Gono's Cover Story... 
- Dust Settling over Kingdom Meikles... 
 
--------------------------------- 
On the Political and Social Front 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  SADC Troika Visits Zimbabwe...The foreign ministers of 
Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zambia; representing the SADC Organ on 
Politics, Defence and Security; and SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz 
Salamao arrived in Harare on October 28 to review the implementation 
of the Global Political Agreement and to address the political 
impasse between ZANU-PF and MDC-T. SADC chairman, DRC President 
Joseph Kabila, is expected to join them. MDC-T is skeptical this 
visit will accomplish much and wants SADC involvement bumped up to 
Troika heads of state and possibly an extraordinary summit of all 
SADC heads of state. 
 
 
¶3.  NGO Arrests and Abductions Return to Zimbabwe... A number of 
events in the last week are raising concerns that ZANU-PF is ramping 
up efforts to intimidate civil society and the MDC through its usual 
techniques of politically-motivated arrests, abductions, and 
intimidation. For instance, Bindura council employees loyal to 
ZANU-PF burned 10,000 copies of the MDC's newsletter The Changing 
Times. One MDC employee was abducted and another was nearly abducted 
on October 27. Earlier in the week, police in Victoria Falls 
arrested the two leaders of the National Association of NGOs (NANGO) 
and charged the activists for organizing a political meeting without 
police clearance in violation of the Public Order and Security Act 
(POSA). The court granted them bail and released them on October 27. 
Two members of another NGO, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network 
(ZESN) were also arrested under POSA on October 28. See Harare 867 
 
¶4.  UN Envoy Deported... UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other 
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Manfred Nowak, himself became 
the victim of degrading treatment when Zimbabwean security officers 
refused to grant him entry on October 28. Nowak was already in South 
Africa when he learned on October 27 that the government had 
rescinded its invitation for his fact-finding mission scheduled to 
begin on October 28. Prime Minister Tsvangirai then invited him for 
a meeting on October 29. When Nowak arrived in Harare, security 
officials said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hadn't granted 
clearance for the meeting and refused him entry. Nowak spent the 
night at the airport before being deported on October 29. See Harare 
Qnight at the airport before being deported on October 29. See Harare 
866 
 
¶5.  Teachers Report Mounting Harassment, Militarization... The 
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) told us that fears are 
mounting in rural areas of renewed harassment of teachers. Teachers 
at the Maungwa Secondary School in Gutu North report that the local 
militia is forcing children from age 14 and up to participate in 
daily military drills. In the Mberengwa area of Midlands, the 
 
HARARE 00000868  002 OF 003 
 
 
District Education Officer in the Ministry of Education has demanded 
teachers "donate" 50 cents to the December ZANU-PF conference. At 
Chaona Primary School in Mashonaland Central, teachers fled two 
weeks ago fearing mounting anti-MDC rhetoric would lead to renewed 
violence. Four of the teachers who spent several weeks in the 
hospital as a result of 2008 violence in Chaona came to Harare to 
seek protection and transfer from the school. 
 
¶6.  MDC to Push for Reform in Parliament... Next week, the MDC-T 
caucus in Parliament intends on pushing forward a private member's 
bill which would amend the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) that 
has been abused by State security agents to limit public dissent. 
While insiders are not optimistic of the amendment's chances because 
of the MDC's reduced numbers in Parliament, they view it as an 
opportunity to highlight the need for legislative reform and force 
ZANU-PF and President Mugabe into rejecting it. They may make 
similar efforts to amend other abused pieces of legislation such as 
the Access to Information and Protection of Information Act (AIPPA), 
the Broadcasting Services Act, and Section 121 of the Criminal 
Procedures and Evidence Act. See Harare 862 
 
¶7.  Farm Violence Increases, Targets Black Workers... During a visit 
to central Zimbabwe last week, we witnessed the growing crisis 
facing unemployed and evicted farm workers who are increasingly the 
victims of Zimbabwe's chaotic land reform. See Harare 856. We also 
met a white farmer the day before a group of drunken ZANU-PF thugs 
began a two-day sit-in on his property that eventually resulted in 
his eviction from his home of 19 years. When the farmer, one of the 
plaintiffs in the SADC Tribunal Campbell case, confronted Defense 
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to seek a reprieve, Mnangagwa told him 
that he had brought the invasion on himself because he had taken the 
government to court to keep his property. See Harare 857 
 
¶8.  Judicial Reform Conference Cancelled... An all-stakeholders 
conference to discuss reform of the Zimbabwean justice system was 
cancelled after civil society organizations pulled out, citing 
repression of their members, particularly the arrests of NANGO 
officials. The conference was organized by the ZANU-PF-led Ministry 
of Justice and Legal Affairs and was to be attended by government 
departments, civil society organizations, and donors. Civil Society 
organizations vowed not to participate in the process as long as 
government continued to crack down on their members. 
 
¶9.  Amnesty International Wants SADC Action... This week Amnesty 
International issued a statement lamenting recent arrests, 
abductions, and harassment in Zimbabwe and called on SADC to 
"recognize this recent deterioration in the human rights situation 
and tackle it immediately - before it degenerates further." 
 
 
¶10.  Human Rights Watch Repeats Calls to Suspend Zim from KP... In 
anticipation of the Kimberley Process plenary session next week in 
Qanticipation of the Kimberley Process plenary session next week in 
Namibia, Human Rights Watch has called for Zimbabwe's full 
suspension from the international body responsible for monitoring 
rough diamond trade. 
 
----------------------------------- 
On the Economic and Business Front 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  IMF Highlights Risks to Recovery... IMF officials briefed 
diplomats in Harare on October 27 at the end of a two-week visit. 
While the economy is set to record real growth for the first time in 
over a decade, they said important risks threaten Zimbabwe's 
economic recovery. With a widening trade deficit and faltering 
capital inflows, instability in the balance of payments could 
undermine growth. The IMF remains concerned about weak governance at 
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which has imprudently tapped into the 
banks' reserve deposits in order to meet some of its own 
 
HARARE 00000868  003 OF 003 
 
 
obligations. See Harare 863 
 
 
¶12.  Gono's Cover Story... In The Herald, ZANU-PF's idea of a daily 
newspaper, RBZ Governor Gideon Gono explained on October 30 that he 
was forced to make irregular use of banks' reserve funds because the 
Ministry of Finance provided no financial support. Gono reportedly 
claimed that he needed the money to keep Zimbabwe's electronic 
payments system running. While clearly absurd, Gono's cover story is 
par for the course and might even be good enough to let him keep his 
job. See Harare 865 
 
¶13.  Dust Settling over Kingdom Meikles... An end is in sight to the 
months-long public controversy in which Kingdom Meikles Africa 
Limited (KMAL), once a blue-chip local conglomerate, saw its 
executives accused of corruption and its share price collapse. The 
press has reported that rival KMAL executives have reached an 
agreement that will split up the company and possibly lead to the 
GOZ dropping criminal charges. This is good news for KMAL's 
shareholders, but the GOZ's heavy-handed intervention has already 
done permanent damage to Zimbabwe's investment climate. 
 
----------------- 
Quote of the Week 
----------------- 
 
¶14. "What we are seeing now was exactly how the violence began in 
the campaign for the presidential run-off elections between March 
and June last year. We are beginning to see the formation of another 
storm of violence."  MDC-T Spokesman Nelson Chamisa on surging 
tensions in Zimbabwe 
 
DHANANI