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Zimbabwe is being run by a military junta which has already staged a de-facto coup, a senior Western diplomat said yesterday. The claim came as American and British embassy staff were detained at gunpoint while investigating political violence against opposition supporters.
Asked if we have already seen a coup in Zimbabwe, the diplomat said: "Yes we have. This is a junta," referring to the shadowy Joint Operations Command. "These are the people who have actually kept Mugabe in power."The JOC is under the nominal control of a veteran politician, Emmerson Mnangagwa, but is, in fact, run by General Constantine Chiwenga, head of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
The diplomat spoke to journalists in London amid a dramatic escalation of voter intimidation three weeks ahead of a run-off between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
In the latest incident, a group of US and British diplomats were stopped at a roadblock in Bindura, 28 miles north of the capital, Harare. James McGee, the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, said the campaign to intimidate diplomats was "coming directly from the top". Later the Zimbabwean government announced that all work by aid groups and NGOs was suspended indefinitely, accusing them of breaching their terms of registration. Mr Tsvangirai, who was himself detained for eight hours on Wednesday after being stopped at a roadblock, has also accused the military of staging a de-facto coup by taking control of large swathes of the country and declaring them no-go areas for the opposition.
Speaking to Voice of America radio, Mr Tsvangirai said the army was calling Zimbabweans to political meetings at which they were instructed to vote for Mr Mugabe. He said this opened up the military to being involved in politics. "I think it's tantamount to a military coup," he said, adding that it was "the most dangerous development that's happening in the country".
The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, summoned the Zimbabwean ambassador to the Foreign Office to explain why the diplomats had been detained. "This is a window into the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans," Mr Miliband said. "We have to be concerned obviously about British staff, but we also have to be concerned that intimidation does not become the order of the day.
"Mr McGee, who was not in the convoy, told CNN: "Police put up a roadblock, stopped the vehicles, slashed the tyres, reached in and grabbed telephones from my personnel. The war veterans threatened to burn the vehicles with my people inside unless they got out and accompanied police to a station nearby.
"The diplomats were released after a six-hour stand-off. "While this immediate incident has been resolved, it will not be forgotten," a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said. "It is absolutely outrageous, and it is a case of the kind of repression and violence that this government is willing to use against its own people.
"Bright Matonga, a spokesman for the Zimbabwean government, accused the diplomats of handing out campaign literature for the opposition party, and said they had refused to leave their vehicles. "The police simply wanted to get to the bottom of the issue. No force or violence was used," he said.
Following the release on 2 May of the presidential election result, in which the challenger came ahead of the President and forced him into a humiliating run-off, Mr Mugabe's supporters have unleashed a kind of electoral cleansing, systematically targeting MDC voters to prevent them from casting their ballots in the second round, which is scheduled for 27 June.
The Western diplomat said the military running the enforcement campaign appeared to be prepared to take any risks to stay in power. At least 50,000 people are reported to have been driven out by the displacement of opposition supporters. Another worrying development, the diplomat said, was the "effective decapitating" of the opposition, by the abduction and murder of five prominent MDC activists, including Tonderai Ndira.
Mr Tsvangirai left the country for five weeks and returned at the end of May despite assassination fears.
The diplomat said Mr Mugabe, who almost stepped down after the first round but was persuaded to fight in a run-off, was now "beholden" to the military to stay in power. "They are faceless securocrats. These are not people who can run the country without a figurehead like Mugabe." This was why the leader was confident he did not risk being overthrown when he went to Rome this week for a UN food summit.
The MDC has reached out to military leaders since the first round and has offered guarantees to encourage them to take part in an orderly transition. "The biggest issue is n will there be an accommodation before it's too late?" the diplomat said.
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