U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Joe Sullivan, attempts to persuade a Zimbabwean police officer to allow him entry to the Harare High Court
Posted on 02/06/2003 12:11:26 AM PST by chance33_98
U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Joe Sullivan, attempts to persuade a Zimbabwean police officer to allow him entry to the Harare High Court
U.S. Involved in Plot to Kill Mugabe, Zimbabwe Court Hears
HARARE, February 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A key witness in the treason trial of Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai Wednesday, February 5, hinted that the U.S. government was involved in an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai and two senior officials from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party are accused of plotting to kill Mugabe and overthrow the Zimbabwe government ahead of last year’s presidential elections.
The state’s case hinges on a videotape recording of a meeting Tsvangirai held in Montreal with political consultancy Dickens and Madson in December 2001, where the opposition leader is alleged to have requested Mugabe’s elimination.
The key state witness in the case, Ari Ben Menashe, the head of Dickens and Madson, told the court Tuesday that a senior official from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Edward Simms, attended that meeting, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
On Wednesday, the court heard a section of the four-and-a-half-hour tape in which Ben Menashe, gesturing towards Tsvangiari, said: “Work has been done on your behalf to get stuff through Congress, work has been done to get these guys (the CIA) on your side to do the elimination on your behalf.”
It is not clear from evidence, provided so far, whether Simms is part of the CIA, as Ben Menashe claims. The defense has said Simms was not the CIA deputy director for Africa.
Paul Nowack, a spokesman for the CIA in Washington, told AFP: “We don’t comment on whether people work for us or not.”
The soundtrack on the black and white video shown in court was barely audible. On the first day of screening the court only watched the first half hour of the tape, repeatedly rewinding to listen again to parts that were hard to hear.
The MDC has said it never requested Dickens and Madson to eliminate Mugabe, and did not know the company was linked to the Zimbabwe government.
Indeed, on the section of the tape watched by the court on Tuesday, Tsvangirai was heard to say: “The discussion was never about the elimination of Mugabe, it was about the election, and the post-election outcome.”
However, Ben Menashe has insisted in court that he had clear instructions from Tsvangirai to assassinate Mugabe and help stage a military coup.
Jointly charged with Tsvangirai are the MDC’s Secretary General, Welshman Ncube, and shadow agriculture minister, Renson Gasela.
All three deny the charges, which carry the death penalty on conviction.
They say they were set up by Dickens and Madson in a bid to sideline Tsvangirai, who has emerged as the most significant threat to Mugabe since he came to power 23 years ago.
Ben Menashe said he informed the Zimbabwean authorities of the opposition leader’s alleged request, and supplied them with a copy of the video.
The former Israeli intelligence agent Menashe said he had been to Zimbabwe several times before the alleged plot and knew some people in the government.
Court Struggles to Hear Evidence
On Tuesday, the court struggled to hear the bad quality videotape showing that Tsvangirai committed high treason by plotting to assassinate Mugabe.
Ben Menashetold the court that Tsvangirai had clearly asked him to help kill Mugabe ahead of presidential elections last year.
But in the videotape shown by prosecutors on the second day of the trial, Tsvangirai was heard to say: “The discussion was never about the elimination of Mugabe, it was about the election, and the post-election outcome.”
Tsvangirai’s lawyer, renowned South African attorney, George Bizos, asked the judge to take note of the statement, as it is “the one intelligible bit of the tape.”
The defense argues that a tape shown on television in which Tsvangirai is held to discuss eliminating Mugabe was heavily edited and used to frame the opposition leader.
The afternoon hearing was taken up by painstaking viewing of discussions between Ben Menashe, his associates and Tsvangirai held in December 2001. Much of the tape is barely audible.
Ben Menashe appeared uncomfortable during the hearing, frequently mopping his face.
The high-profile trial began Monday amid scenes of tension as riot police tried to bar journalists, diplomats and opposition supporters from entering the court.
While police were out in force Tuesday, all those who wanted to gained access to the court.
Earlier, Ben Menashe alleged he “clearly heard that Tsvangirai was proposing that Dickens and Madson help him and his colleagues carry out the assassination of the President of Zimbabwe and a coup d’etat.”
Nearly a dozen state witnesses are expected to testify in the trial.
The three MDC officials are said to have held several meetings with Ben Menashe and his associates in London and Montreal in late 2001, before they realized that Ben Menashe was linked to Mugabe’s government.
A 500,000 US dollar contract was signed after one of the London meetings, Menashe said.
“The understanding in this contract was that we will help eliminate, kill the president of Zimbabwe, President Mugabe, help them with a coup d’etat, with the help of the commander of the air force and help put together a government of national unity,” Menashe said.
Ben Menashe claimed that Tsvangirai told him that “Mugabe will not leave office unless he is taken away in a coffin”.
He said he and his colleagues decided to report the matter to the Zimbabwe and Canadian authorities.
Earlier Tuesday, Ben Menashe was cautioned against trivializing the court when he said Tsvangirai at one time asked him how beautiful the inside of the Zimbabwe state house was, since he had been there before.
“I think he was enquiring about his future house,” he said. The defense raised objections to the statement.
“The witness is clowning in the witness box. This is a court of law not a place of entertainment,” George Bizos said.
Judge Paddington Garwe told Ben Menashe to be “serious and use appropriate language”.
Menashe said he has been to Zimbabwe several times before the plot and knew some people in the government from the time he was lobbying the Zimbabwe government on behalf of another foreign government.
I'm with that. Besides, it is affirmative action in action. I bet if we did go after him the left would be saying we were racist for doing it...
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