VZCZCXRO4114
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHWD #0115/01 1130541
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 220541Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY WINDHOEK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9863
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0125
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0205

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 WINDHOEK 000115 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL MASS MARR WA
SUBJECT: ZIM PANEL SHEDS LIGHT ON MUGABE'S MESS 
 
REF: (A) Castillo-PAO Collective email 4/18/2008, (B) 07 Windhoek 
438 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) A panel of five Zimbabwean activists, sponsored by PAS 
Harare and Freedom House to travel the region, impressed their 
Namibian listeners with revelations about the situation in Zimbabwe. 
 Their cogent arguments prompted a public discussion that turned 
upside-down many of the liberation themes that Mugabe and his allies 
have used repeatedly to block criticism.  Namibian public support 
for Mugabe appears to be waning and public discourse has become more 
in favor of active SADC intervention in Zimbabwe.  For its part, the 
GRN leadership continues to adopt a go-slow approach.  End summary. 
 
"If Zimbabwe Needs a Second Liberation, So Be It" 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Bulawayo Agenda Executive Director Gorden Moyo, Zimbabwe 
Lawyers for Human Rights Executive Director Irene Petras, journalist 
Gibbs Dube, Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) representative 
Abel Chikomo, and USAID DG specialist Jacob Mafume participated in 
public discussions and interviews on April 15 to shed light on the 
situation in Zimbabwe. The team made crisp, well-articulated points, 
stressing that the worsening violence, Mugabe's ongoing violations 
of Zimbabwean law, and the lack of electoral results or legal 
recourse is going to leave Zimbabweans feeling their only option is 
to retaliate.  The panelists urged people to lobby their governments 
to pressure the GOZ to release electoral results and avoid deepening 
the crisis to a point of no return. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The over 200 Namibians and Zimbabweans in the audience 
during an April 15 debate with the five panelists were firmly in 
agreement that SADC and the regions' leaders needed to take a more 
active stance to pressure Mugabe and his government.  Many of them 
broke regional taboos by using sacred liberation language against 
Mugabe and his fellow former liberators.  Some of the most notable 
comments from the audience: "We need to urge the GRN to have 
solidarity with people of Zimbabwe, not the state." "How can we 
decolonize minds from Mugabe's colonialism?" "If Zimbabwe Needs a 
Second Liberation, So Be It!"  A Namibian in the audience won 
applause when asked "Why can't we do to Mugabe what he did to the 
DRC?" referring to Zimbabwean, Angolan and Namibian intervention in 
the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the late 1990's. 
 
Namibian Public Opinion Shift 
----------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The tide of Namibian public opinion may slowly be turning 
in favor of a more activist approach by SADC to address the Zimbabwe 
crisis.  A year ago, when Zimbabwean professor John Makumbe visited 
Namibia and criticized Mugabe's regime, a surprisingly large number 
of participants at the public lecture vociferously defended Mugabe 
and castigated Makumbe as a puppet of the West (ref B).  With this 
recent panel, only two questioners indicated mild support for 
Mugabe, and one was a member of the Zimbabwe High Commission.  All 
the major media outlets covered the visit by the Zimbabwean 
activists. 
 
¶5.  (U) In the same vein, the SMS pages of the independent Namibian 
newspaper are replete each day with renewed condemnation of Mugabe, 
South African President Thabo Mbeki, SADC, and the region's leaders. 
 Even the Editor of the government-owned New Era newspaper, who 
typically adopts pan-Africanist or even anti-western positions, used 
his Friday editorial on April 18 to urge SADC to intervene now, 
"Because later may just be too late!" 
 
GRN Taking it Slowly 
-------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The government, however, seems less interested in 
intervention or public discourse that could be construed as 
pressuring Mugabe.  During his State of the Nation address on April 
10, President Pohamba avoided taking a position, saying only that he 
had dispatched Foreign Minister Hausiku to Harare to assess the 
situation.  The independent media has criticized the GRN's silence. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) On April 7, SWAPO MP Royal J. K. /Ui/o/oo (protect) made 
the press after he publicly criticized Nambia's approach to Zimbabwe 
and Mugabe.  /Ui/o/oo told PolOff on April 18 that he made the 
comments because he felt he had to speak his conscience and that he 
was tired of the fact that SWAPO MPs always had to get permission 
from on high before speaking their minds.  /Ui/o/oo said he did not 
think the most recent events in Zimbabwe had changed any of the 
minds of the SWAPO elite about Mugabe or Namibia's policy because 
too many of the SWAPO cadres still believed that the West was 
plotting to oust Mugabe.  /Ui/o/oo was visibly incensed by his SWAPO 
 
WINDHOEK 00000115  002 OF 002 
 
 
colleagues' perception of the West and Zimbabwe: "Mugabe's own 
people voted him out... 28 years is too long to stay in power." 
 
MATHIEU