Movement for Democratic Change secretary general Tendai Biti said his party was ready for a government of national healing which included the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front as long as the “destabilising” Mugabe was not included.
He told this to the United States ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad in a private meeting in New York.
The Southern African Development Community was reported to be pushing for a government of national unity because it did not believe that an election runoff would solve the political crisis in Zimbabwe.
Biti complained to Khalilzad about South African President Thabo Mbeki’s bias towards the ZANU-PF and said the South African position had been confirmed by its permanent representative to the United Nations, Dumisani Khumalo who said he did not see any need for intervention because SADC had not called for help.
Khumalo said South Africa had called on Zimbabwe to announce the results of the 29 March elections as soon as possible but added that members of the United Nations should wait for the results “like we are doing for Nepal to which no-one is talking about sending a fact-finding mission”.
Biti said there was need for international intervention because 40 to 50 MDC supporters had been killed by government supporters since the election. Some 7000 families had been displaced; every MDC office had become a refugee centre.
Khalilzad told Biti that he was impressed by his concept of a “government of national healing” and assured him that “the U.S. will do all it can to respect the vote for change of the people of Zimbabwe”.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 08USUNNEWYORK404, SECURITY COUNCIL INTEREST IN ZIMBABWE GROWING
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VZCZCXRO5817
OO RUEHBW RUEHDU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV
RUEHSR RUEHTRO
DE RUCNDT #0404/01 1262130
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 052130Z MAY 08
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4217
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000404
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2018
SUBJECT: SECURITY COUNCIL INTEREST IN ZIMBABWE GROWING
Classified By: Ambassador Alejandro Wolff for Reasons 1.4 B/D.
¶1. (C) SUMMARY. UN Under Secretary-General Pascoe briefed
Security Council members on April 29 on the situation in
Zimbabwe, describing a pre-election period marked by threats
of violence from government officials, a relatively open and
fair elections process, and a post-election surge in
government-encouraged violence against opposition MDC
supporters. Pascoe conveyed the Secretary-General’s
readiness to lend his good offices in support of SADC and AU
efforts to monitor the vote validation process and a runoff
election if scheduled. Council members uniformly supported
those SADC and AU efforts but differed significantly about
whether the Council or Secretary-General should get directly
involved. Several members called for a special envoy or fact
finding mission, and several others (including all three
African members) strongly opposed both ideas. Zimbabwe
opposition leader Tendai Biti made a statement to the press
on the margins of the Council session and later met with
Ambassador Khalilzad and several Coucil members at USUN. In
his press statement, Biti criticized SADC’s performance, an
opinion he shared in more detail during the USUN session,
suggesting the AU and UN should become more directly involved
and maintaining that the opposition was not inclined to
participate in any runoff election the validation process
were to call for. END SUMMARY.
¶2. (SBU) In April 29 briefing requested by the U.S. and UK
among others, United Nations Under Secretary-General Lynn
Pascoe described recent events in Zimbabwe to the Security
Coucil in closed consultations (members only, no record).
Pascoe said Zimbabwe officials — including the commander of
the army and the police commissioner — had made clear prior
to the election that they would not accept an opposition
victory. Nevertheless, he said, the campaigns were
reasonably open and international observers had pronounced
the elections themselves to be credible. Prompt announcement
of results in the parliament and assembly contests were
followed by an extensive delay in announcing the presidential
results that Pascoe said “poisoned the atmosphere and
paralyzed the country” as the opposition claimed that the
published results from more than 8,300 polling stations were
easily tabulated and demonstrated a clear majority for the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
¶3. (SBU) Pascoe described a post-election “surge in
government-encouraged violence” targeting MDC supporters in
rural areas and including “an orchestrated campaign of
repression and retribution … being carried out under the
name ‘Operation Where Did You Put Your X’ – a campaign
against those who marked ballots for the opposition.” He
reported MDC allegations that 200 people were arrested during
a raid at its party headquarters, 15 MDC supporters killed,
hundreds injured, and thousands forced to flee their homes.
Pascoe also noted a statement by UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights Louise Arbour expressing concern “about reports
of threats, intimidation, abuse and violence directed against
NGO’s, election monitors, human rights defenders and other
representatives of civil society.”
¶4. (SBU) Pascoe concluded by conveying UN Secretary-General
Ban’s offer to lend his good offices to reinforce Southern
African Development Community (SADC) and African Union (AU)
efforts to contain the crisis in Zimbabwe, adding that
“anything we do we do with SADC and the AU.” Members
invariably echoed this call for cooperation with the two
African organizations. Several members (U.S., France, UK,
Belgium, Italy, Panama) expressly called for a UN
fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. France and the UK
suggested the Secretary-General might also consider naming a
special envoy. UK and Costa Rica called for an arms embargo.
¶5. (SBU) Russia said a runoff election would only exacerbate
the situation. China, Vietnam, Libya, Burkina Faso, and
South Africa warned against UN intervention unless expressly
requested by Zimbabwe or SADC/AU. South Africa PermRep
Kumalo offered extensive and emotional commentary in which he
sarcastically noted that SADC “has not asked for help” and
ridiculed Commissioner Arbour for “reading newspaper articles
and then expressing opinions.” Kumalo said South Africa has
expressed concern to Zimbabwe that the election results be
made public as soon as possible. Noting that recounts to
date had confirmed opposition victories, he urged members to
await final results “like we are doing for Nepal to which
no-one is talking about sending a fact-finding mission.”
¶6. (SBU) MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti, after meeting
privately with U/SYG Pascoe prior to the Council’s
consultations, took advantage of the press stakeout outside
the Council chamber to address the media. In a later private
meeting at USUN with Ambassador Khalilzad, Biti (accompanied
USUN NEW Y 00000404 002 OF 002
by MDC officials Wellington Chadehumbe and Eliphas
Mukonowesh) said he believed it had been very important that
the Security Council discussion and subsequent press events
had taken place, especially as a means of revealing the
position of South Africa. Biti told the Ambassador that
“today in the Council South Africa removed any little doubt
we had.” He said South Africa and PermRep Kumalo were
“playing a dangerous game … that had the ANC up in arms and
South African unions ready to go beyond talking.” He said
that the MDC had already written to SADC to complain about
“South Africa’s biased facilitation” and that the MDC would
consider participation in a “government of national healing”
that included ZANU-PF as long as the “destabilizing” Mugabe
was not included.
¶7. (C) In a follow-on meeting at USUN with several Council
member representatives (UK, France, Belgium, Burkina Faso,
Italy, Croatia, Panama), Biti continued his criticism of
South Africa, calling President Mbeki “a defender of the
(Zimbabwe) regime” and ridiculing SADC’s statement that
dialogue is underway between ZANU-PF and the MDC. On the
contrary, he said 40-50 MDC supporters had been killed by
government supporters since the election, 7,000 families had
been displaced, every MDC office had become a refugee center,
and the military is being deployed into civilian areas across
Zimbabwe in order to influence any runoff election. Under
these circumstances, Biti doubted MDC would agree to
participate in a runoff. He said the vote verification
should take a few people only a few hours with a calculator
because it amounted to a simple process of tabulating the
public results from 210 voting constituencies comprising more
than 8,300 polling stations, something he said MDC had
already done and which revealed on April 2 that MDC had
initially won 50.3 percent of the presidential vote and had
finally won 54.8 percent after all the isolated rural polling
stations were included.
¶8. (C) Although disdainful of South Africa-led SADC efforts,
he expressed confidence that the AU could “do what it did in
Kenya” if SADC could be circumvented. When UK Deputy PermRep
Pierce asked how the AU might be persuaded to ask for UN
assistance as had happened in Kenya, Mukonowesh replied that
individual African states (he named Botswana, Zambia, and
Tanzania) should be approached individually about approaching
the AU directly.
¶9. (C) Italian PermRep Spatafora and Burkina Faso PermRep
Kafando were surprised at Biti’s comments about SADC,
Spatafora saying, “The mantra in the Council has been ‘SADC
and AU together’ and now we are told we are wasting our time
with SADC.” Biti agreed with Mukonowesh, adding, “You are
better off approaching Kenya, Tanzania, even Gabon; there are
enough African countries to drive the process. If these
countries can get the AU to call a meeting, it would be hard
to say we must wait for SADC.” Koudougou said he had not
intended to speak because he had no instructions from
Ougadougou, but felt compelled to take the floor to agree
with Italy’s expression of surprise, adding that, “I have
taken note of your comments about SADC and will inform my
capital, which believes generally in taking problems to the
regional organization and then to the AU.” Ambassador
Khalilzad closed out this session by telling Biti he was
impressed by his concept of a “government of national
healing” and by assuring Biti that “the U.S. will do all it
can to respect the vote for change of the people of Zimbabwe.”
Khalilzad
(39 VIEWS)
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