RETALIATION CONTINUES. WILL SADC SEE?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000515 SIPDIS AF/S FOR S. HILL ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS STATE PASS TO USAID FOR E. LOKEN AND L. DOBBINS STATE PASS TO NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/19/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM KDEM ZI SUBJECT: RETALIATION CONTINUES. WILL SADC SEE? REF: A. HARARE 503 ¶B. HARARE 494 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Glenn Warren for reason 1.4(d). -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) ZANU-PF MPs and thugs continue to attack MDC supporters and their families in Bindura in retaliation for a U.S. delegation visit on June 5. The brother of the losing MP in Bindura, Philip Mabika, called on POLOFF on June 17 to report an attack on his elderly parents at their home in Bindura. Mabika, an MDC activist, further indicated that SADC observers had come to the town of Bindura recently but that they did not venture beyond the city center. The real violence, displacement, and intimidation is occurring in rural areas and farms, beyond the scope of the observers' sight. He further reported that Ian Makone, the MDC's chief election official, had related the ongoing violence to Tanki Mothae, the Lesothan who is currently the top SADC election observer in Zimbabwe. END SUMMARY. -------------- Blatant theft and brutality -------------- ¶2. (C) According to Philip Mabika, on June 16, Itai Dickson Mafios, ZANU-PF MP for Mt. Darwin North (he won with 80 percent of the vote and Mugabe won 72.3 percent on March 29), along with a former ZANU-PF Councillor who lost his seat in the March 29 election, led a group of about 50 ZANU-PF youths, war vets, and intelligence officers to the home of the parents of Philip and Peter Mabika in Bindura, Mashonaland Central. Embassy officials had visited Peter Mabika -- who lost his bid as MDC's MP candidate in Bindura South -- on June 5; hours after the visit, at least five people in Bindura were arrested and three homes raided (Reftel B). Philip and Peter both fled to Harare with their families after the raids and arrests and have been in a safe house in Harare since June 5. Their elderly parents (Mr. Mabika is about 75) stayed behind in Bindura. They were alone at home with two teenage children when the ZANU-PF group arrived on June 17. Entering the house, MP Mafios asked them "why they were talking to the whites who wanted to take their land?" They went on to ransack the house, stealing the elder Mabika's 15 bales of market-ready tobacco, TV, satellite dish, DVD player, clothes, blankets, one ton of maize meal, and USD 200 -- literally everything they had. While they were being robbed, the thugs forced the four Mabikas to lie down on the floor and beat them on their backs and buttocks with wooden sticks. ¶3. (C) Philip stated that the Mabikas are now hiding at a friend's house in a neighboring area. The local hospital refused to offer them treatment without a police report -- which police have refused to give. When Philip called the Bindura police to report the beatings and theft, police said that they had been ordered to not attend to political scenes. Their friend, who kept them safe overnight, fears for his own safety if the Mabikas are discovered. Philip said he planned on making the risky 80 km drive -- through nine heavily manned roadblocks -- to bring his parents to Harare later on June 17. He reported he could travel relatively safely because he had a cousin who worked for the police who would accompany him in the car. -------------- A mockery of democracy -------------- HARARE 00000515 002 OF 002 ¶4. (C) With a wry laugh that has become the MDC activists' trademark, Philip bemoaned the sham of an election that this runoff has become. He said the MDC was shorthanded for polling agents and vehicles to transport them, as no one wanted to be a polling agent in his own constituency. In addition, he said that some polling places were located on war vets' farms. Although the MDC's head election official, Ian Makone, had spoken with the head of SADC observation in the country, Tanki Mothae, and told him of the ongoing violence, Mabika was not convinced the SADC observers would see or grasp the extent of the violence and lawlessness. He viewed the Zambians and Botswanans as being most sympathetic to their cause and the Angolans and South Africans as the two countries least willing to decry the ongoing violence. ¶5. (SBU) Mabika said that two trucks carrying SADC observers had come through Bindura recently, but that they only visited the town itself, not the surrounding rural areas. Mabika provided POLOFF with an extensive list of rural areas in the Bindura and Mt. Darwin areas of Mashonaland Central where, in his opinion, election observers would be most needed. -------------- Councillor denied bail and medication -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Bindura Ward 7 MDC Councillor Shonai Shikirivhawu was arrested on June 5, shortly after she welcomed U.S. Embassy staff to her home for a brief visit (Reftel B). As has become customary, the prosecution appealed a magistrate's order June 13 for her release on bail, and she remains in jail. Mabika told us she needed medication for her tuberculosis (TB). He said that while the Zimbabwean government had a TB program, there were no drugs in Bindura. Consequently, it was entirely likely that Shikirivhawu would not only become more ill, but that she would spread TB in her crowded jail cell. Mabika said that the MDC had coordinated with NGOs to deliver food the first week, but that it had been difficult to do so since the movement of food aid had been stopped recently (Reftel A). -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) Reports like Philip Mabika's continue to flood in regarding violence, arbitrary arrests, and beatings, with MDC officials, activists, and their family members as the targets. As in other areas, the violence in Bindura is organized by senior ZANU-PF officials who act with complee impunity, as police refuse to take reports, much less stop the perpetration of violence. The retaliation in Bindura following a diplomatic visit is particularly distressing; the regime is sending a signal that individuals who talk with diplomats -- and perhaps observers -- will pay a price. The intent obviously is to discourage communication -- and therefore prevent knowledge -- about the insidious violence. END COMMENT. Warren