VZCZCXRO6627
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0510/01 1741116
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 231116Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4642
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 2326
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 2906
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 3025
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1457
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2288
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 2655
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 3073
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5516
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2201
RUZEHAA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000510 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR B. WALCH 
DRL FOR N. WILETT 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR M. GAVIN 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND E.LOKEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ASEC KDEM PGOV PREL ZI
SUBJECT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY GENERAL SLAMS ZIMBABWE 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (SBU) Amnesty International (AI) Secretary General Irene Khan 
wrapped up a six-day visit to Zimbabwe on June 18 with a press 
conference where she expressed her dismay at "persistent" human 
rights violations in Zimbabwe.  During a diplomatic briefing on June 
16 that included numerous African diplomats, she called on all 
members of the international community to use their influence to 
encourage the Zimbabwean government to enact further security sector 
reforms and address issues of impunity.  AI has a unique 
relationship with Zimbabwe, having defended President Mugabe and 
other senior ZANU-PF officials as "prisoners of conscience" during 
the liberation struggle in the 1970s.  Because of this longstanding 
relationship, Khan secured meetings with a number of senior ZANU-PF 
officials during her visit.  Khan plans to issue a report on her 
visit and may seek meetings with diplomatic missions at the United 
Nations (UN) in New York to share her findings and identify new 
tactics to encourage improvements in the human rights situation in 
Zimbabwe.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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AI's 40-year Relationship with Zimbabwe 
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¶2. (U) The visit by Khan marked the first-ever trip to Zimbabwe by 
an AI Secretary General.  In a diplomatic briefing at the Dutch 
embassy on June 16 and a press briefing on June 18 at a local hotel, 
she recounted her visit, which included appointments with a number 
of high-ranking ZANU-PF officials.  (NOTE: In the 1970s, AI adopted 
then-political prisoners Robert Mugabe and Didymus Mutasa, among 
other combatants who are now ZANU-PF officials, as "prisoners of 
conscience" while they were held in Rhodesian prisons.  Notably, an 
AI group in Sweden adopted Mugabe and demonstrated on his behalf for 
much of his 11-year detention.  AI's relationship with Zimbabwe 
began to sour in the mid-1980s when AI spoke out against Mugabe-led 
human rights abuses in Matabeleland. END NOTE.) 
 
¶3. (U) During her visit to Zimbabwe, Khan met with ZANU-PF officials 
Vice President Joice Mujuru, Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, 
Minister of State in the President's Office Didymus Mutasa, and Home 
Affairs co-Minister Kembo Mohadi.  She requested a meeting with 
President Mugabe, but never received an answer.  She also met MDC 
officials including Education Minister David Coltart, Deputy 
Minister of Justice Jessie Majome, Home Affairs co-Minister Giles 
Mutsekwa, Minister of State Sekai Holland, and Speaker of the House 
of Assembly Lovemore Moyo.  She will meet with Prime Minister Morgan 
Tsvangirai in London the week of June 22. 
 
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Khan: Human Rights Situation "Precarious" 
----------------------------------------- 
Q----------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) In a statement issued on June 18, AI condemned "persistent 
and serious human rights violations" and the "lack of clear 
commitment" in the government to improve human rights in Zimbabwe. 
Specifically, Khan noted the continued intimidation and arrest of 
human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers, the continued 
prosecution of numerous MPs, the stifled media environment, the 
inability to protest peacefully, farm invasions, and the education 
crisis. 
 
¶5. (SBU) During the diplomatic briefing, Khan said that when she 
pushed government officials on the subject of impunity, she received 
 
HARARE 00000510  002 OF 002 
 
 
only vague answers.  She further explained that before perpetrators 
can be rehabilitated, there must be an end to the denial that a 
problem even exists.  Khan said that Zimbabwe is "nowhere near ready 
to identify or admit what has happened." 
 
¶6. (U) In the press conference wrapping up her visit, Khan bemoaned 
the lack of urgency in improving human rights and the failure to 
introduce security reforms.  She also noted that senior government 
officials she met confirmed that "addressing impunity is not a 
priority for the government right now."  Khan's press statement 
revealed her frustration with the government's lackadaisical 
attitude, "whenever we raised the issue of human rights change, the 
government answered that it needed more resources... Ending attacks 
on human rights defenders, lifting restrictions on the media, and 
allowing public protests do not require money - they only require 
political will." 
 
¶7. (U) The local press has blasted Khan's critical assessment, 
calling it one-sided, damning, and hurriedly compiled.  On June 19 
Vice President Joice Mujuru brushed aside AI's call for addressing 
impunity and told the press "the people of Zimbabwe have got over 
their differences and have no time to waste fighting each other as 
they are too busy rebuilding their country." 
 
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AI Wants More UN Involvement 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) In the June 16 diplomatic briefing, Khan told African and 
Western diplomats that she will likely present her findings to 
diplomatic missions at the United Nations in New York in the coming 
weeks.  The German and Canadian ambassadors welcomed her proposal 
and suggested that AI recommend sending a UN political observer team 
to help the inclusive government improve its performance. 
 
¶9. (SBU The AI online report published June 18 calls on the 
Zimbabwean government to invite the UN High Commissioner for Human 
Rights to establish a presence in Zimbabwe to support human rights 
reform and monitor progress.  The report also calls on the 
international community, "both African governments as well as 
western ones," to develop a common human rights strategy in 
Zimbabwe. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶10. (SBU) We welcome Khan's visit and are pleased that she and her 
team were able to freely travel around Zimbabwe.  We believe that 
AI's critical assessment of conditions on the ground is accurate and 
well-timed.  Khan is right to point out that while responsibility 
for the vast majority of the human rights violations rests with 
ZANU-PF, some in the MDC are too eager to ignore these past wrongs 
for "political expediency."  VP Mujuru's kneejerk defensive remarks 
in the press are regrettable, but to be expected as Zimbabwe's human 
rights record is condemned yet again in the international press. 
Qrights record is condemned yet again in the international press. 
END COMMENT. 
 
MCGEE