Harare, Monday
THE first face-to-face talks between Zimbabwe’s ruling and opposition parties since President Robert Mugabe won re-election last month failed to get off the ground on Monday, as both sides refused to budge on their positions on the tarnished polls.
The talks, which brought together delegates from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), are aimed at pulling Zimbabwe out of a deep political impasse sparked by the March 9-11 vote.
”The present crisis cannot be resolved except through a return to legitimacy. This can only be achieved through a fresh, free and fair presidential poll. There is no other way,” the head of the MDC delegation, party secretary general Welshman Ncube, declared when the talks opened on Monday afternoon.
But that demand was rejected outright by the leader of the Zanu-PF delegation, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
”We … treat the result of the presidential poll as non-reversible and non-negotiable,” Chinamasa said in his opening speech.
The MDC argued that the March vote was not free and fair because state-sponsored violence had denied millions of people their right to vote.
”The country is in a state of low intensity conflict sponsored by the state,” said Ncube, adding that over 500 000 politically-related human rights violations were recorded in the year up to March 2002.
”The whole country has been turned into a veritable war zone,” he said in a speech made available to reporters after the close of the first day of talks.
Zanu-PF has repeatedly accused the MDC as being a puppet of the former colonial power, Britain.
”We are naturally opposed to cooperating with reactionary forces, whether local or international, which are fronts for foreign interests that are hostile to Zimbabwe,” Chinamasa said.
”Zanu-PF is committed to cooperating with nationalist and patriotic Zimbabweans … who accept our sovereignty and are committed to defending it at all times,” said Chinamasa.
Ncube retorted: ”We believe that we engage in this dialogue as patriots, with a lot of goodwill and open minds”.
Hopes for a successful dialogue dimmed when the two parties appeared to have diametrically opposing opinions on the issue of whether fresh elections are needed.
”Our positions are so diametrically opposed that we are not speaking the same language, but I take it this is the whole purpose of the dialogue – to see whether we can find a common ground amongst us as Zimbabweans,” Chinamasa told reporters after the talks.
He added: ”It’s too early to talk about compromises”.
The talks will resume Wednesday, when an agenda and rules of procedure will be discussed.
The talks are being mediated by two facilitators – Nigerian diplomat Adebayo Adedeji and Kgalema Motlanthe, a South African ruling party politician – appointed by presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who contributed to a March 19 decision by the Commonwealth to suspend Zimbabwe for one year.
That decision was based on a damning report from the Commonwealth observer mission to the polls, in which they catalogued a systematic campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters and said the election was held in a ”climate of fear and suspicion. – Sapa-AFP
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