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THE United States Government
was allegedly involved in a suspected plot to assassinate President Robert
Mugabe, key State witness Mr Ari Ben-Menashe said in his testimony yesterday.
Mr Ben-Menashe, the head of Dickens and Madson, told the court that a senior official from the US Central Intelligence Agency, Edward Simms, attended that meeting where Tsvangirai and other officials from his company discussed the transitional process after the elimination of President Mugabe. Tsvangirai, his party�s secretary-general Welshman Ncube and MDC Gweru Rural MP Renson Gasela are now being tried for treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Mugabe. All have denied the charge. The State bases its case on a videotape recording of a meeting Tsvangirai held in Montreal with political consultancy Dickens and Madison in December 2001, where the opposition leader is alleged to have requested President Mugabe�s elimination. Yesterday the court heard part of the tape in which Mr Ben-Menashe, gesturing towards Tsvangirai, 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." According to AFP Paul Nowack, a spokesman for the CIA in Washington said: "We don't comment on whether people work for us or not." Yesterday Mr Ben-Menashe told the court that Tsvangirai walked out of a meeting in frustration after he was told that Dickens and Madison refused to assassinate President Mugabe. "He was upset because we were telling him we were going to stop the process, he went outside to consult with (Mr) Rupert Johnson," said Mr Ben-Menashe. Mr Johnson is a London-based MDC official who, prior to this meeting, had a series of meetings with Mr Ben-Menashe, Tsvangirai, Ncube and Gasela where the plot to eliminate the President was allegedly hatched. At the Montreal meeting Tsvangirai was advised the assassination of President Mugabe did not mean he would automatically become president of Zimbabwe, said Mr Ben-Menashe as he led the court through the videotape evidence of the meeting held at the headquarters of Dickens and Madison in Montreal, Canada. Tsvangirai was told that for the plan to work, he should negotiate with those in the structures of power on how to form a transitional government when the President had been eliminated. "He didn�t see the weight of elimination, if he is eliminated (President Mugabe) tomorrow, it doesn�t mean you are the president tomorrow," Mr Ben-Menashe explained some of the contents of the videotape. He told a High Court packed with mostly MDC supporters that he had told Tsvangirai that his company was not made up of hired guns that would eliminate the President. Judge President Mr Paddington Garwe, presiding, had to call for order when MDC supporters, representatives of foreign missions, mostly European, interfered with Mr Ben-Menashe as he gave evidence. Tsvangirai is reported to have been in a hurry to discuss events about the transitional government since the meeting on the plot to assassinate the President had been held before. He quoted Tsvangirai saying: "When I came here that was my feeling of understanding, the second meeting would brief me about the transitional mechanisms, what�s going to happen if we move towards this. You said we would put those into action, then the issue is, how then do you move to the next step, and the next? The next step being a three-phase programme, the transitional programme the election process and the post-transitional programme that�s how I understand the phases to be. And this meeting was supposed to be talking about, okay, we have moved so far we definitely say that Mugabe is going to be eliminated, what is the transitional arrangement in place." Although parts of the videotape were not clearly audible each time Tsvangirai�s voice was clear and high when he said: "No, they don�t have to. All they have to do is ask the Vice President (Muzenda) that, look (to the army and other structures of power), we have got a crisis, we cannot proceed immediately after the head of state has been eliminated but we want to form a transitional relationship with the MDC." This was to follow a constitutional process that in the event of the death of the president his deputy automatically takes over to organise a new election. According to the evidence led, Tsvangirai proposed there be ways to create a power-sharing transitional government that would lead to an election that would be held without President Mugabe. In the audiotape, he is clearly heard saying there was no way his party could leave Air Marshall Shiri out of the transition while they were clear he would not be part of the elimination. At one point Tsvangirai admitted that there was need to find a way to "deal" with the voting majority that belonged to Zanu-PF while his government would "buy out" certain government officials that were loyal to President Mugabe. The trial continues today and Advocate George Bizos who is leading the defence team is expected to cross-examine Mr Ben-Menashe. He is being assisted by Advocates Chris Andersen and Eric Matinenga, and is instructed by Mr Innocent Chagonda, Mr David Coltart and Mr Romualdo Mavedzenge. Deputy Attorney General Mr Bharat Patel assisted by the director of public prosecution Mr Joseph Musakwa and chief law officer Mr Morgen Nemadire are appearing for the State. The Mulindwas
communication group
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