LESOTHO AND THE CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE

C O N F I D E N T I A L MASERU 000157 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR AF/S E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/15/2017 TAGS: KDEM PREL ZI LT SUBJECT: LESOTHO AND THE CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE REF: MOZENA/AMB EMAIL DTD MARCH 15 CLASSIFIED BY: June Carter Perry, Ambassador, EXEC , STATE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) CLASSIFIED BY: June Carter Perry, Ambassador, EXEC , STATE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) With the bad and worsening situation in Zimbabwe, Ambassador raised the issue of (a) what Lesotho as Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chair was going to do about Mugabe, and (b) what Lesotho as a nation would do to stop Mugabe's continued assault on the opposition. The discussion took place on the evening of March 14 at a dinner with SADC Chairman Minister Timothy Thahane (GOL Minister of Finance), Natural Resources Minister Moleleki (former Foreign Minister), Minister of Local Government Sekatle and Minister of Health Ramatlapeng. Ambassador Perry forcefully asked what Lesotho planned to do about this situation, especially given its role as the SADC Chair and the pending 21-23 March SADC Ministerial in Maseru. She described the appalling human rights violations and clear lack of democracy in Zimbabwe. Thahane lightly said that this was clearly an action for the security arm of the SADC chaired by Tanzania. However, Minister Moleleki responded that indeed it was a horrible, embarrassing situation and recalled our discussions about both Zimbabwe and Sudan during his tenure as Foreign Minister. The Ambassador emphasized that the international community as a whole had to take action and that we along with the European Union had been very condemnatory and forceful in our own statements about the situation and looked to Africa, particularly SADC, to take a public stance on the inhumanity that was occurring in Zimbabwe. ¶2. (C) Besides Moleleki, the other Ministers essentially twiddled their thumbs and looked down as if afraid to even address the subject of what was happening under the Mugabe regime. Thahane did say at the end of our discussion that he understood the problem and that there are concerns within SADC about Zimbabwe. He also stated that he would make sure that Prime Minister Mosisili was aware of our interventions and position. ¶3. (C) On March 14, during a break in the opening session of Parliament, Ambassador Perry had a private talk with Prime Minister Mosisili reiterating the important role that SADC had to play, as well as Lesotho, as Chair in this regard. Mosisili stated that he knew that they "had to do something," exactly what that action would be he could not detail at this moment. We noted with him, as we had with the other Ministers the evening before, that with the Council of Ministers meeting coming up March 21 in Maseru, it was critical that a statement or specific action/dialogue with Mugabe occur. Note: As of early March 14, the Government of Lesotho (GOL) had not received a response from the Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) regarding Mugabe's (from the GOL perspective, a possibility) attendance; according to Thahane it was still questionable. End Note. ¶4. (C) Comment: The fact that several GOL ministers are nervous about even addressing the question of Mugabe's behavior is disturbing to say the least. Thahane fell back on his role as Chair, but tried to pass the buck to Tanzania to be the spokesperson on this issue. The Prime Minister actually seemed more engaged and understanding about the fact that Lesotho as a nation, and especially as SADC Chair, was in a position to take concrete action. At the same time, he did not appear to have reached any sort of decision point about actions or statements that would be made. We learned from another minister that there had been discussion during the last Cabinet meeting (on March 13) on whether or not a statement should be made in Parliament by the King during his address. From what we can gather, this was clearly a bone of contention among various ministers. The King did not mention the situation in Zimbabwe at all during his hour-long address to the legislature, but concentrated on domestic bills and development goals. We will watch carefully and continue to engage the government, particularly Minister Thahane as Chair of next week's SADC Council meeting, and determine if the government will make an individual statement or urge some type of SADC action on this very important issue. We do urge an Africa-wide demarche on this subject before and during the SADC Council of Ministers meeting March 21-23. End Comment. PERRY