VZCZCXYZ0012
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDR #0124/01 0571411
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 261411Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8292
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHJB/AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA 2816
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 3332
RUEHLGB/AMEMBASSY KIGALI 1260
RUEHMS/AMEMBASSY MUSCAT 0014
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 1170
RUEHDS/USMISSION USAU ADDIS ABABA
RHMFISS/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHMFIUU/CJTF HOA//J3
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS DAR ES SALAAM 000124 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR AF/E JLIDDLE, INR/RAA FEHRENREICH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID PGOV PREL TZ
SUBJECT: ZANZIBAR: RULING PARTY CCM THINKING IN A 
POST-RECONCILIATION WORLD 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: For the ruling party CCM, U.S. development 
assistance to Zanzibar is welcome, but involvement in the political 
realm is not.  According to Ali Mzee, Chairman of the Zanzibari 
House of Representatives (representing the mainstream Karume faction 
of Zanzibar CCM), America should not push too hard, lest the social 
fabric break.  To him, opposition CUF was not a real party but a 
breakaway faction of CCM opportunists.  Real reform would come from 
within CCM, and such change was coming, he said.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) In early February, Zanzibar Affairs Officer (ZAO) and two 
visiting Washington analysts visited the Zanzibar House of 
Representatives Chair Ali Mzee Ali at his residence in Mazizini, a 
few miles from Stonetown, Zanzibar (Unguja).  Ali Mzee began the 
conversation in a bombastic manner, stating that few outsiders, 
including mainland Tanzanians, understood Zanzibaris or their 
history.  Even most foreigners, he said, were unaware of their own 
countries' history in the islands.  He pulled out of his pocket a 
list of dates and events that he started to read to us, but before 
he got underway, his phone rang.  It was President Karume.  Perhaps 
unaware that those present might understand Kiswahili, Mzee Ali took 
the call in front of us and reviewed with the President his main 
talking points to us and promised not to stray from the party line. 
 
¶3. (U) Mzee restarted his talk with an upbeat summary of U.S. - 
Zanzibar relations, a story that he said "began over 200 years ago 
and continued hitherto." He went year-by-year through an 
Archives-supplied list of U.S. ship visits from the 1830's to about 
the U.S. Civil War, contrasting them to British ship visits of the 
same period (we had about double the volume of trade, according to 
his figures).  He continued his history lesson with the story of the 
Afro-Shirazi Party and its merger with TANU in 1977. He also touched 
on the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which he referred to 
"as an engagement of two sovereign states." 
 
¶4. (U) Ali Mzee concluded that "Zanzibar respects Americans and 
regards them as friends."  He emphasized that our mutual interaction 
succeeded regardless of the political changes that occurred in each 
respective place.  "Zanzibar and America are two sovereign states," 
he continued.  "We appreciate your assistance.  You do so many 
things that help our people.  Continue to help us economically, for 
every politician wants to find things to help him survive among his 
constituents," he said, "but respect our ways."  The subtext of his 
comments, in so many words over the course of the evening, was that 
the CCM government might not be prepared to do what the United 
States wanted it to do in the short term.  By saying the "two 
states" should respect each other, what he seemed to be implying was 
that while U.S. help with Zanzibar's needs in terms of developmental 
assistance was welcome, involvement in the political realm was not. 
America should not push too hard, lest the social fabric break, he 
warned.  The U.S. could remain helpful by its assistance, allowing 
politicians room to take risks in support of democratic reform. 
 
 
¶5. (U) Specifically on reconciliation, Ali Mzee expressed 
disappointment for the failure between the two parties to strike a 
deal.  "Reconciliation," he said "was a CCM initiative aimed at 
building up a peaceful Zanzibar."  He praised the role of Union 
President Kikwete in supporting the Muafaka (reconciliation) talks 
and blamed CUF Secretary General Seif Hamad for their failure.  Ali 
Mzee said Seif Hamad "disclosed to the public what had been agreed 
to be confidential while the negotiations were ongoing, causing 
public chaos."  Ultimately, he concluded that reconciliation on 
Zanzibar had less to do with the parties than with the will of the 
people.  Ali Mzee said that Zanzibar's political problems could be 
best addressed through referendums and opinion polls. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Loosening up as the evening went on, Ali Mzee said he did 
not consider CUF to be a legitimate opposition party.  Instead, its 
leaders were "opportunists."  Ali Mzee suggested that CUF was more 
like a wayward faction of CCM.  He claimed that before "CCM party 
reform" in the 1990's, when (current CUF SYG) Seif Hamad was CCM 
Chief Minster in Zanzibar, he was "as corrupt as the best of them." 
Similarly, he said that when CUF's "Human Rights Director" Ali Haji 
Pandu was Zanzibar's Chief Justice in the then-monoparty Zanzibar, 
he was "about the most ruthless and torture-minded bastard of the 
bunch."  At the same time, current CUF parliamentarian Abubakar 
Khamis Hamad was Zanzibar's Attorney General.  "If you want to 
criticize CCM, look who was judge, jury and executioner during more 
oppressive times," Ali Mzee asserted.   Real change had to come from 
 
within the "real CCM," Ali Mzee concluded, adding that internal 
power centers were already shifting for the better. 
 
¶7. (SBU) COMMENT AND BIO NOTE: Ali Mzee is a veteran of the 
mainstream, pro-Karume, pro-Union with Tanzania faction of 
CCM-Zanzibar.  A participant in the bloody 1964 Zanzibar revolution, 
and a member of the CCM party (and its antecedents) since its 
inception, Ali Mzee has served in various Tanzanian High 
Commissions/Embassies over the years, mostly in African countries. 
However, he landed in jail following the 1972 Karume pere 
assassination. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Founding President Karume's youngest son, Abeid, the 
current Zanzibari President, has a special, personal relationship 
with Ali Mzee that dates back to the former's youth.  The exact 
relationship between the two is not yet known by ZAO, but it is 
known that the younger Karume had a role in "rehabilitating" Ali 
Mzee post-prison and bringing him back into politics from obscurity. 
 Appointed by President Karume in 2000 as one of the six non-elected 
at-large representatives in Zanzibar's 79-member unicameral 
legislature, Ali Mzee sits as Chairman of the House ("Mwenyekiti wa 
Baraza").  Serving under the Speaker ("Spika"), Pandu Ameir Kificho, 
the titular head of the House, Ali Mzee serves as Whip of the 
absolute majority CCM.  He also chairs the House Committee on 
"Constitution, Laws and Good Governance."  He is known as the 
"enforcer" of Karume's will in the Parliament; the phone call from 
Karume at the outset of our conversation and the points Ali Mzee 
kept repeating to us seem to confirm that. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Nonetheless, other ZAO interlocutors say to look beyond Ali 
Mzee's gruff, didactic manner.  They say he is a tempering influence 
on Karume and is key to any CCM liberalization.  Ali Mzee loosened 
up markedly the more we spoke.  At the end of the evening he was 
comfortable - daring even - to show us around his lavish villa, 
which he plans to turn into a guest house.  For his part, Ali Mzee 
says he is tired of politics and looks forward to retiring with the 
change of administrations in 2010, "whoever might come in." End 
Comment. 
 
ANDRE