Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
02HARARE2401
2002-11-04 14:26:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Harare
Cable title:  

GOZ VIOLENCE AGAINST MDC TARGETS COUNCILORS

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREL EAID ASEC ZI MDC ZANU PF 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 002401 

SIPDIS

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER
LONDON FOR C. GURNEY
PARIS FOR C. NEARY
NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/04/2012
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL EAID ASEC ZI MDC ZANU PF
SUBJECT: GOZ VIOLENCE AGAINST MDC TARGETS COUNCILORS

REF: A. HARARE 2354


B. HARARE 2087

C. HARARE 2193

D. 01 HARARE 2171

E. 01 HARARE 2594

F. 01 HARARE 2774

Classified By: Political Officer Audu Besmer for reasons 1.5 b/d

Summary:
--------
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 002401

SIPDIS

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR J. FRAZER
LONDON FOR C. GURNEY
PARIS FOR C. NEARY
NAIROBI FOR T. PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/04/2012
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL EAID ASEC ZI MDC ZANU PF
SUBJECT: GOZ VIOLENCE AGAINST MDC TARGETS COUNCILORS

REF: A. HARARE 2354


B. HARARE 2087

C. HARARE 2193

D. 01 HARARE 2171

E. 01 HARARE 2594

F. 01 HARARE 2774

Classified By: Political Officer Audu Besmer for reasons 1.5 b/d

Summary:
--------------

1. (C) Since the September 28 - 29 Rural District Council
elections, ZANU-PF supporters have carried out a violent
campaign of retribution against winning MDC councilors and
MDC supporters in districts that elected MDC councilors. At
least one MDC supporter was beaten to death. Winning (and
losing) MDC councilor candidates, and polling agents have
been beaten, ordinary MDC supporters have been beaten and
raped, MDC supporters' houses have been burned, and MDC
offices have been attacked. Violence and food denial
continue to be effective tactics, as feeding and protecting
their families are higher priorities for most Zimbabwean
oppositionists than challenging a government they despise.
End Summary.


2. (C) Since the September 28 - 29 Rural District Council
elections, ZANU-PF supporters have carried out a campaign of
retribution against winning MDC councilors and MDC supporters
in districts that elected MDC councilors. Other reports of
violence spanning the election period are now surfacing.

MDC Supporter Tortured and Killed
--------------

3. (U) On October 21 according to MDC officials and press
reports MDC supporter Isaac Karimete died of wounds inflicted
when he was abducted and tortured by ZANU-PF militia in the
run-up to the Rural District Council elections in late
September. Karimete was one of more than a hundred MDC
supporters who were abducted and taken to the Gunduza school
in Gunduza, which was being used to detain and beat MDC
supporters, one of three sites set up by ZANU-PF in
Mashonaland Central province before the September 28 - 29

elections. (The other two were in Mushinye and Chimoyo.)
Known or suspected MDC members were taken to these three
sites, pressured to defect to ZANU-PF, and beaten or raped
when they refused. After Karimete's detention, militia
members told him to leave his home in Muzarabani. Though he
was able to identify at least four of his assailants, there
were no reports of arrests in the case.

Winning Councilors and Losing Candidates Beaten
-------------- --

4. (C) According to press reports, on October 12 ZANU-PF
supporters led by the party's Hwange East District Chairman
and war veteran Gerald Moyo stoned and beat recently
re-elected MDC Kamativi district councilor Matthew Ngwenya,
and his wife in Kamativi, Matabeleland North. According to
Ngwenya, a mob of ZANU-PF supporters, including the losing
ZANU-PF candidate, approached their home saying, "today you
will be in trouble," and "we want you dead". The losing
candidate reportedly said, "we need to kill a donkey"
referring to Ngwenya. The mob stoned the house, breaking all
the windows, and pried the doors off the hinges to get at the
Ngwenyas. They were force marched to a nearby bush area
where they were separated and both beaten, Matthew to the
point of unconsciousness. When Poloff interviewed the couple
at the Amani Trust offices (a local NGO treating victims of
political violence) on October 24 in Bulawayo, they each had
bruises and cuts over their faces and bodies, and Matthew's
left arm was broken in two places. The couple is afraid to
return to Kamativi. ZANU-PF officials had previously
pressured Ngwenya to return to the party; he defected to MDC
in July 2002 while serving as councilor of Kamativi.


5. (U) According to MDC officials and press reports, on
October 18 a truckload of ZANU-PF youth militia members
allegedly sent by the ZANU-PF Provincial Chairman for
Matabeleland North, Jacob Mudenda, beat MDC supporters and 16
newly elected MDC councilors gathered for their swearing-in
ceremony in Binga. Jeffrey Nyoni, the MDC councilor for
Silakenge ward, as well as Mr. Mdhimba, the ZANU-PF
Provincial Administrator who oversaw the ceremony, were in
critical condition as a result of the beating. (Note:
Mdhimba, though a ZANU-PF official, was beaten for organizing
the swearing-in ceremony in accordance with his official
duties. End Note.)


6. (U) According to MDC officials and press reports, on
October 12 the newly elected councilor for Mzola ward in
Nkayi, Matabeleland North, Themba Dlomo was addressing a
post-election meeting when ZANU-PF supporters, led by war
veteran Francis Nyoni, attacked everyone assembled. Police
responding to the scene arrested twenty-one MDC supporters,
twelve of whom were remanded in custody and due to appear in
Hwange Magistrate's Court on October 29. There were no
reports of ZANU-PF supporters arrested. MDC officials
reported that Nyoni and his group were planning to attack
another MDC councilor, Thomas Nyathi, of Matshokotsha ward in
the same constituency.


7. (U) On October 1, according to MDC officials and press
reports, the day after results of the Rural District Council
elections were announced, unknown assailants assaulted Veni
Muleya, a newly-elected MDC councilor in Mutsheseo ward in
Binga, and Sofia Ngwenya, the MDC losing candidate for Tinde
ward in Binga, and burnt their homes to the ground.


8. (U) According to MDC officials and press reports, on
September 28, the first day of voting for the Rural District
Council elections, ZANU-PF youths and war veterans assaulted
and beat Francisca Ngwende, the MDC candidate for Murehwa
South's ward 24, and her polling agents as they waited for
transport to take them to polling stations. Ngwende suffered
a fractured left hand, and her polling agent, Rumbidzai
Mutava, was hospitalized for injuries sustained in the
attack. On January 31 ZANU-PF supporters had burnt Ngwende
and her husband's (who is a war veteran and MDC member) house
to the ground. Though the assailants are known in both
cases, no arrests have been made.

Polling Agents Arrested / Beaten
--------------

9. (U) On October 24, according to MDC officials and press
reports, war veterans in Zaka assaulted and severely beat
Last Njokoza, an MDC polling agent for the Rural Council
elections. The war veterans reportedly called a meeting on
the pretext of distributing food. They singled out MDC
supporters in the crowd including Njokoza and several other
polling agents and beat them in front of the crowd,
threatening to beat anyone else who supported the MDC.
Police said they were investigating the matter; no arrests
were made.


10. (U) According to press reports, on October 28 around
midnight police arrested eleven MDC polling agents for the
Insiza by-elections from their homes in the Bulawayo area.
They were held for a day, assaulted, questioned and released.
According to press reports Bulawayo police spokesman, Smile
Dube, refused to comment on what charges they faced.

MDC Supporters Held During Elections, Beaten, Raped
-------------- --------------

11. (U) According to MDC officials and press reports, on
September 21 (a week before the Rural Council elections)
ZANU-PF youths abducted Solomon Mazarire, the MDC Chairman
for Chadereka ward in Muzarabani, in broad daylight from the
vicinity of a ZANU-PF rally in Gunduza. Addressing the
rally, Nobbie Dzini, ZANU-PF MP for Muzarabani, criticized
the youths for carrying out the operation in broad daylight
and emphasized that such activities should be done at night
so as to avoid notice. Mazarire was held in Chimoyo and
repeatedly beaten. On September 22 ZANU-PF militia members
abducted Mazaririe's wife Mercy, and their oldest daughter
Lynette (18),from their home in Chadereka and held them in
Gunduza. Lillian (16) was detained briefly, but freed
allegedly to take care of their other five children. Militia
members raped Lynette and beat both Mercy and Lynette with
barbed wire and logs. All three were released on October 11.
Militia members confiscated MDC material and maize from the
Mazarire home and forced the family to leave Muzarabani.
There were no reports of arrests.

MDC Councilors Forced to Defect to ZANU-PF
--------------

12. (U) According to MDC officials and press reports, ZANU-PF
supporters have pressured MDC councilors to join ZANU-PF. In
Beedy (between Matobo and Kezi, Matabeleland South province)
the recently elected MDC councilor was forced to defect to
ZANU-PF. To maintain the peace, his constituents have
reportedly agreed to the switch--expected to be formalized
soon. In ward three in the Gwanda district of Matabeleland
South, winning MDC councilor Nkanyiso Nala went into hiding
and then defected to ZANU-PF.

MDC Supporters' Homes Burned / Destroyed
--------------

13. (C) On October 17 war veterans in Matobo (south of
Bulawayo) burned to the ground the house of John Sibanda,
allegedly because Sibanda is an MDC activist, and had refused
a request by war veterans to be a "settler" on the nearby
Godwin farm earlier this year. In an interview with Poloff
on October 24, Sibanda did not report any injury to his
family, but recounted that five other homesteads of families
who refused to be settlers have been burned in his area
recently.

MDC Offices Attacked / Damaged
--------------

14. (U) According to press reports, on October 28 about 100
ZANU-PF youths in Border Gezi "green bomber" uniforms
attacked the MDC offices in Bulawayo with stones, bricks,
axes, picks and logs. The front of the building, office
equipment in the front rooms, five party vehicles, and one
private vehicle were damaged extensively in the 15-minute
attack. MDC officials reported the identities of many of the
assailants to the police, who did not commit to investigating
the crime. On the same day, suspected MDC youths attacked a
school in Bulawayo belonging to the ZANU-PF Deputy Political
Commissar; the chronology of the two events is unclear.

Comment:
--------------

15. (C) These cases suggest a campaign of retribution,
organized and constructed to intimidate people and convince
them to drop their support for the MDC. The two-pronged
strategy of violence and food denial is proving very
effective at consolidating ZANU-PF's hold on power (Refs A,
C),as Zimbabweans sympathetic to opposition views are
understandably more interested in feeding their families and
protecting them from harm than in challenging a regime they
increasingly despise. End Comment.
SULLIVAN