This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 002295 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR FRAZER 
LONDON FOR CGURNEY 
PARIS FOR CNEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPDC PREL ZI
SUBJECT: LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH FROM MDC LEADER TSVANGIRAI 
 
 
¶1.  On October 16, Embassy was asked to convey a letter 
from Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan 
Tsvangirai to President Bush and other current and former 
 
SIPDIS 
USG officials seeking a more active UN role in addressing 
Zimbabwe's crises.  We have pouched the letters to AF/S and 
convey the text of the Tsvangirai-Bush letter in paragraph 
2 below.   The other letters contain identical text and 
were delivered in sealed envelopes addressed to former 
President Clinton; former President Carter; UN Ambassador 
Negroponte; Representatives Ed Royce and Donald Payne; 
Senators Daschle and Lott; Reverend Jesse Jackson; and 
Chester Crocker. 
 
¶2.  Begin text of Tsvangirai-Bush letter: 
 
Mr. George W. Bush 
President of the United States of America 
Washington DC 
 
October 14, 2002 
 
Dear Mr. President, 
 
Re:  Call for UN Security Council action on Crimes Against 
Humanity Committed by the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. 
 
On behalf of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe, I 
write to you Sir, and the other Five Permanent Members of 
the United Nations Security Council. 
 
Since February 2000, several efforts by the United States 
of America, the European Union, the Commonwealth, SADC, the 
World Council of Churches and several local and 
international civic organizations appealed to Robert Mugabe 
to uphold the rule of law, respect human rights and put a 
stop to political murders, rape, torture and state- 
sponsored terror and violence, but the illegitimate Mugabe 
regime has not relented.  Instead, it has demonstrated 
utter contempt of international opinion and has reaffirmed 
its commitment to carrying out crimes against humanity as a 
means of subjugating the people of Zimbabwe and denying 
them the right to freely determine their own destiny. 
 
There is growing evidence on the ground in Zimbabwe today 
Sir, that the subjugated and brutalized majority are 
preparing to react violently against this state of affairs. 
The consequent bloody civil strife will not only result in 
a massive loss of life but will inevitably spill into the 
territory of the neighboring states of the region.  The 
international community must not allow Mugabe to continue 
charting this path towards national destruction and 
darkness. 
 
It is in the context of this grim and extremely dangerous 
situation that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), 
which represents the legitimate aspirations of the people 
of Zimbabwe, calls for the intervention of the UN Security 
Council in the Zimbabwe crisis in accordance with Article 
39 (Chapter VII powers) of the United Nations Charter. 
Crimes that rival fascism and Nazism in scale and 
wickedness are being committed daily, not by an occupying 
force, but by a supposedly sovereign government of the 
country. 
 
We therefore call for the urgent institution of an 
international program for Zimbabwe under the auspices of 
the United Nations, designed to: 
 
¶1.  Investigate the gross human rights abuses and 
crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated by 
the Mugabe regime. 
 
¶2.  Investigate state-sponsored violence and the breakdown 
of the rule of law. 
 
¶3.  Investigate the denial of food relief to suspected 
political opponents and the consequent mass starvation. 
 
¶4.  Facilitate the realization of a free, unfettered and 
fair expression of the popular will of the people of 
Zimbabwe. 
 
We ask and plead with you Sir, and your fellow permanent 
members of the UN Security Council, to place these issues 
on the agenda of the Security Council for serious 
discussion and speedy resolution.  In our humble view, 
there remains no other viable alternative in the quest to 
put a stop to the crimes against humanity that are being 
perpetrated daily by the Mugabe regime. 
 
The Mugabe regime has recreated the conditions of the 
Rhodesian crisis in 1965, when the Ian Smith regime 
effected a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) and 
established an illegitimate government in order to maintain 
a racial political order over the majority of the 
population. 
 
UDI sought to deny the majority of the people of the then 
Rhodesia the right of self-determination.  In 1966, in 
reaction to that development, the UN Security Council (SC 
Res.232 (1966) and subsequent resolutions), acted swiftly 
to confront an ominous development that threatened regional 
and international peace and security. 
 
In reacting to UDI, the UN Security Council recognized the 
legitimacy of the Zimbabwe people's struggle against racist 
minority rule, which was undemocratic.  Similarly, the 
Security Council must legitimately consider Robert Mugabe's 
forestalling of the installation of a legitimate elected 
government through illegitimate force, and the consequent 
violations of human rights, as clearly constituting a 
threat to international peace and security. 
 
Through his brutal suppression of the right of the 
Zimbabwean people to freely elect a government of their 
choice and through his regime's perpetration of crimes 
against humanity, Robert Mugabe has crated an explosive and 
dangerous situation akin to Ian Smith's UDI.  A corrupt, 
murderous and illegitimate regime maintains state sponsored 
violence against a defenseless civilian population.  This 
situation is rapidly degenerating into mass killings, 
refugee flows and mass starvation. 
 
The prevailing internal situation therefore constitutes a 
threat to regional and international peace and security. 
SADC Heads of State and government came to the same 
conclusion at their Luanda, Angola Summit when they denied 
the Mugabe regime the opportunity to host the SADC 2003 
Summit.  We believe that the international community must 
proceed rapidly to use this SADC position as a launching 
pad for determined action to clamp down on the growing 
spiral of violence and crimes against humanity perpetrated 
by the Mugabe regime. 
 
In his violent seizure of power, Robert Mugabe must not be 
allowed to invoke the international legal term, "national 
sovereignty" in a vain endeavor to reinforce his 
illegitimate political position internationally.  He is 
susceptible to a megalomania that identifies his corporeal 
self with symbols of nation and state.  This provides the 
context in which Robert Mugabe inflicts crimes against 
humanity upon those Zimbabweans trapped within the 
boundaries of the territory that he confuses with himself. 
In Robert Mugabe's case, the term "national sovereignty" 
must not be used to allow him to shield the suppression of 
the real popular sovereignty from external rebuke and 
sanction. 
 
The sovereignty of the people of Zimbabwe must be 
protected, but the object of the protection is not the 
power base of a tyrant who rules directly by naked and 
illegitimate force or through the apparatus of a 
totalitarian political order.  Instead, what must be 
protected is the capacity of the people of Zimbabwe to 
freely express and effect legitimate choices about the 
identities and policies of those who govern them. 
 
The time for the Security Council to act is now.  Delay 
will result in a costly catastrophe in terms of human 
lives. 
 
We therefore urgently appeal to you, Mr. President, as one 
of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, 
to act with your characteristic determination to put a stop 
to the violent abuse of human rights and the carnage that 
is going on and assist in the process of laying a healing 
hand on the country and its tortured people. 
 
I avail myself, Mr. President, this opportunity to renew 
the assurances of my highest consideration. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
 
 
Morgan Tsvangirai, 
President, Movement for Democratic Change. 
END TEXT. 
 
¶3.  Comment:  Tsvangirai's urgent appeal to the United 
Nations reflects the growing pressure the opposition party 
is under from the GOZ, the MDC's inability to devise 
effective, home-grown solutions to Zimbabwe's intensifying 
cycle of crises, and a genuine concern that the situation 
here will soon degenerate into civil conflict. 
 
 
SULLIVAN