Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09DARESSALAAM124
2009-02-26 14:11:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Dar Es Salaam
Cable title:  

ZANZIBAR: RULING PARTY CCM THINKING IN A

Tags:  EAID PGOV PREL TZ 
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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

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