CIO dirty tricks dept at it again-(22-02-07)

HARARE - The internal division of the shadowy Central Intelligence Organisation, responsible for destabilizing opposition political parties, has been fingered as the hand behind flyers being circulated and emblazoned across the country insinuating that MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa and secretary g


eneral Tendai Biti were disgruntled with the leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai and plan to form another splinter MDC faction.
The Zimbabwean learnt this week that the plot is being masterminded at Hardwicke House, the CIO Offices in central Harare, and involves ratcheting up a propaganda offensive against the opposition.
In this plot, the CIO has also launched a weekly propaganda newspaper, The Zimbabwe Today, amid reports the newspaper has received financial support from the President’s Office under the Special Allocations, a division in which the CIO falls. The publication, a rabid propaganda sheet, is already angling for further handouts. Its brief is to trash the MDC. But the propaganda handling has been so shoddy that it is churning out unconvincing and crude misinformation.
The distribution of fliers purportedly drafted by the MDC youth wing, the Women’s Assembly and the labour body Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, calling on Tsvangirai to lift sanctions or face internal revolt, is another vehicle for the CIO’s multi-pronged strategy to destabilize the MDC, opposition officials said.
The fliers, which are being emblazoned across the country under the cover of darkness, attempt to give the impression that Chamisa and Biti were against sanctions and were at odds with Tsvangirai over the issue.
The fliers are on A4 bond paper and have a sloppy computer generated image of the MDC logo. A poster purportedly drafted by the “MDC Women’s League” reads: “We are in support of Nelson Chamisa and Biti, we have suffered enough. Be prepared for another break up. Not to sanctions.”
Curiously, the MDC does not have a “Women’s League,” which is the name given to the women’s wing of the ruling Zanu (PF) party. The MDC’s women department is called a “Women’s Assembly” and the error clearly betrays the architect of the strategy.
Another poster purportedly written by “MDC Youths” reads: “We are loyal MDC but we cannot survive by toyi-toying on $5,000 stipends. Tsvangirai where is your heart? We join Chamisa in refusing sanctions.”
Another poster titled “Open Appeal to MDC President” appeals to the MDC leader to lift sanctions “if he still needs our support.”
“Remember our party gives us a paltry $10,000 for every demonstration against Zanu (PF) government. Is this money enough to buy cooking oil, bread, sugar, mealie-meal…Please lift the sanctions or face another split or defection to Chamisa.”
The MDC’s Youth and Women’s divisions and Chamisa have all distanced themselves from the fliers, saying the campaign was part of a well-calculated plot to sow seeds of disunity in the opposition party. It was not possible to obtain comment from Biti, who was still in police custody at the time of going to print.
But Chamisa said: “It is the work of the regime. They are trying to tamper with the messenger in a bid to distort the message. It is the work of the CIO there is no doubt. They are panicking because the MDC juggernaut is on the roll and we can clearly see through these dirty tactics.”
Intelligence officials confirmed privately that the Internal Division, which spearheaded the October 2005 MDC split and before that, the disintegration of Margaret Dongo’s Zimbabwe Union of Democrats, were “hell-bent” on fomenting further division within the opposition movement, which is currently mobilizing supporters to resist President Mugabe’s bid to extend his executive mandate by another two years. – Gift Phiri


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