Tsvangirai Reveals More
SIPDIS
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¶7. (C) At a May 28 breakfast meeting with the Ambassador and
AF/S Director DeLisi, Tsvangirai at first refused to be
pinned down about exactly when the mass action would begin,
but privately to the Ambassador he acknowledged that June 2
was a realistic start date. Tsvangirai dismissed speculation
that the MDC would make the call for action during the day
with people already in central Harare, and instead suggested
that demonstrations were planned to take place in the
outlying high-density areas. Tsvangirai expressed some
concern about violence, but believed he could keep things
under control on his side. Tsvangirai took some, but not
total, comfort from being allowed to hold recent rallies and
from Interior Minister Mohadi's statement that peaceful
demonstrations would not be prevented. He dismissed war
veterans threats to prevent marches saying the veterans were
too old and would be no match for MDC youth. Although war
veteran leaders have made recent press statements threatening
violence against MDC marchers, in a separate conversation
even Emmerson Mnangagwa, Speaker of Parliament, dismissed
these as hollow.
Comment:
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¶8. (C) It appears the MDC finds itself between a rock and a
hard place. Their membership, and most Zimbabweans, reach
new levels of frustration and desperation daily and are
demanding the MDC leadership do something. The leadership is
still unsure how the Zimbabwe Defense Forces (ZDF) will
react, and seems constantly unsure if they have prepared and
lobbied enough. Some in civil society doubt that the public
is prepared to take risks to demonstrate and even the
friendly "Daily News" has raised question. The MDC
leadership appears to be purposefully suggesting various
start dates and mass action plans as a way to obfuscate an
organized GOZ response. While there are huge risks to
organizing general protests that may fizzle or turn
uncontrollably violent, if the MDC does not soon guide
people's frustration in a politically positive way,
spontaneous riots over food, fuel or cash, could erupt.
Moreover, ZANU-PF is playing this crisis as if it had all the
time in the world and believes the leadership issue an
internal ZANU-PF matter. End Comment.
SULLIVAN
(120 VIEWS)
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