Mugabe uses forgery to buy time from SADC
LEADERS of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) were last week handed a fabricated document, crafted by Zimbabwe's intelligence services, which purported to reveal an opposition plot to "rig" the March 29 elections.
The phoney document, allegedly signed by Tendai Biti, the secretary general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was used by embattled President Robert Mugabe to buy more time from SADC leaders in the face of building international pressure on him to release results of the presidential elections, which the MDC claims to have won.
Undeterred, Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper, which published extracts from the alleged MDC document on "transition strategy", put out another fake document on Thursday – a letter which it claimed was sent by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, promising him that Britain would "use its influence to bring the Zimbabwe crisis onto the United Nations Security Council".
The purported Brown letter also threatens "direct sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's illegitimate government".
"The British government is supportive of change in Zimbabwe," Brown was alleged to have said. "The UK government believes that the situation is now untenable and a Zanu PF government is no longer relevant to the people of Zimbabwe. I shall be communicating with you after lobbying SADC to make sure that a solution to the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe is reached and your electoral success is respected."
The British Embassy in Harare reacted swiftly, dismissing the document as a forgery.
"No such letter, or wider correspondence, exists," the British Embassy said in a statement. "It reflects this regime's desperation that Zanu PF and state-controlled media have resorted to faking documents for crude propaganda purposes, and not for the first time."
SADC leaders held back from condemning Mugabe after they were presented with the phoney document by his lieutenant, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who attended the summit in Lusaka, the Zambian capital.
The document was used to explain the delay in releasing the results, with Zanu PF contending that there was need to conduct recounts and "verifications" following the emergence of the alleged MDC "rigging" plot.
The document, allegedly signed by Biti, said in part: "Many of these (election officials) are accepting our offers of between Z$3 billion and Z$50 billion so that they exploit any available opportunity to overstate our votes… With these measures in place, the landslide we are seeking is a distinct possibility. This takes our campaign right inside the polling stations and positions us at substantial strategic advantage to even compromise the secrecy of the ballot in our favour."
Professor Jonathan Moyo, a former government strategist now an independent Member of Parliament and leading critic of Mugabe said Zanu PF officials "clearly have their backs against the wall", and they were resorting to crude tactics to mislead even their regional friends.
"I know how dirty these people can be. I have been there when they created false documents alleging I had a child I have never known," Moyo said. "The difference now is that while in the past the targets of their misinformation were the Zimbabwean people, they are now using outright lies and fabrications to mislead a whole regional organisation. They are taking their crude propaganda to a whole new level."
Moyo said the documents were "clearly a manipulation by the CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation)", adding that the Herald was "getting carried away" because the MDC had been slow to rebut its claims – which were published in drips and initially quoting "sources".
He added: "It is scandalous for a head of state to submit to other heads of state a clearly bogus document. If you can treat other governments with such contempt as to present them with forgeries, how safe are the election results?"
SADC leaders are expected to converge again this weekend to find a solution to the election stand-off, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said at the United Nations this week. There has, however, been no official announcement of where the meeting will take place.
The South African government, Zimbabwe's most powerful southern neighbour, has shied from criticising Mugabe, until Thursday.
"When elections are held and results are not released two weeks after, it is obviously of great concern," South African government spokesman Themba Maseko said. "The situation is dire and requires further facilitation."
A spokesman for the EU Commission said in Brussels: "Clearly the publication of the results is needed and is needed now."
"Further delays are unacceptable and will just be considered as stalling the democratic process."
Britain is also turning the international screws. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday: "No one thinks, having seen the result at the polling stations, that President Mugabe has won this election."
On Saturday, Mugabe is expected to ride MDC objections by ordering officials from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to carry out recounts in 23 constituencies in an effort to reverse MDC gains and reclaim the parliamentary majority for Zanu PF, which it lost for the first time.
The MDC factions won 109 seats in total, to Zanu PF's 97, and one seat was won by Moyo, standing as an independent. If at least nine seats, previously won by the MDC, swing back to Zanu PF after the recount, that will hand Mugabe's party a parliamentary majority. The MDC is challenging the moves in court.