Three African presidents met with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday for intense negotiations aimed at ending the political chaos and violence that has crippled the nation for three years.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Malawi President Bakili Muluzi held closed-door talks for two hours at State House with Mugabe, whose increasingly autocratic rule has been blamed for causing the crisis.
Reporters from some foreign media organisations were refused entry into the event. That refusal was seen as embarrassing for Mbeki and Obasanjo who had argued earlier that a lessening of restrictions on media, particularly foreign media, was a sign Mugabe was committed to reform and that Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Commonwealth should be lifted.
After the meeting with Mugabe, the three presidents returned to their hotel and began meeting with Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Police arrested at least 20 demonstrators outside the gates of the hotel who carried placards and banners blaming Mugabe’s party for the crisis, claiming women were victims of torture and insisting that Mugabe must go. None of the presidents saw the arrests or the demonstration that was cleared before they returned to the hotel.
Speaking to reporters before leaving Malawi, Muluzi said the visit was intended to encourage ”internal dialogue” between different Zimbabwean factions.
”It is not a secret that Zimbabwe is facing very serious economic and political problems and I think it is our responsibility to assist when a neighbour in a situation like that arises,” he said.
Mugabe (79) narrowly defeated Tsvangirai in presidential polls last year that independent observers said were deeply flawed.
The opposition, along with Britain, the European Union and the United States, have refused to accept the results, saying voting was rigged and influenced by violence and intimidation mainly against opposition supporters.
The MDC has criticised African leaders for recognizing Mugabe’s re-election amid state-sponsored political violence and shielding him from international censure.
The new mediation efforts come ahead of a trip to southern Africa by Walter Kansteiner, the US State Department’s top Africa official.
Kansteiner will visit South Africa and Botswana, US officials in Harare said. The trip will include efforts to win backing for US calls for political reform in Zimbabwe.
The Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, said in an editorial on Monday that Mugabe’s foes hoped the talks would lead to Mugabe’s retirement and implied the government feared a possible attack from US and British forces, an implication both nations have repeatedly denied.
”There is trepidation … about the timing of the visit in view of the pronounced positions of the British and American governments over regime change in Zimbabwe following their successful invasion and occupation of Iraq,” it said.
Zimbabwe, which Mugabe has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, has been battered by sky-high inflation, rampant unemployment, and famine caused by drought and chaotic, controversial land reforms.
In an interview Mugabe gave on state television last month, the long-time leader of the southern African country hinted he was ”getting to a stage” where retirement might be on the cards.
Tsvangirai this week added to the speculation, saying his party was willing to discuss a way for Mugabe to make a ”smooth exit” from power and for the start of a ”post-Mugabe era”.
But the government insisted last week that Mugabe has no intention of leaving office before his current term expires in 2008, and a South African presidential spokesperson has also dismissed the idea that Mbeki would press for the Zimbabwean leader to stand down.
”We strongly reject the notion that the president can go to another country to affect a regime change there,” said Bheki Khumalo. ”It is up to Mr Mugabe to deal with such issues.”
Zimbabwe is deeply divided politically between supporters of Mugabe, who made his name as a revolutionary hero in the 1970s, and supporters of Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader.
Mugabe, a former herdboy and teacher, was hailed as a hero when he won elections in 1980 after fighting white minority rule for the freedom of his people.
But after two decades of increasingly autocratic rule and falling living standards, Mugabe saw his popularity tumble.
Facing a serious challenge from Tsvangirai’s MDC in the 2000 parliamentary elections, Mugabe went on the offensive, sending his supporters to occupy the lands of the country’s white farmers and stoking nationalist demands for land reform.
The policy put much of the country’s best agricultural land into hands of people with little farming experience and has been blamed for contributing to a crippling food shortage, which has left nearly two thirds of Zimbabwe’s 11,6-million people facing hunger this year.
It has also come under fierce international criticism.
Tsvangirai, an eloquent orator who began professional life as a textile weaver, has been fighting what he has called ”Mugabe’s dictatorship” for years and his persistent defiance of government policies has seen him twice detained by the authorities.
He is currently on trial for treason, along with two other MDC leaders, all accused of plotting to eliminate Mugabe.
Talks between the MDC and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union -Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) have been mooted for some time now, but Mugabe has said he will only talk to the opposition leader he recognises him as a duly elected head of state.
Tsvangirai, meanwhile, has rejected Mugabe’s legitimacy as president and ruled out preconditions for talks.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence. Inflation has soared to a record 228%, unemployment is nearly 70% and Zimbabweans are facing acute shortages of hard currency, food, gasoline, medicines and other essential imports.
More than 200 people have been killed in political violence since 2000 and thousands of others, mostly opposition supporters, have been arrested, tortured and driven from their homes, rights groups say. – Sapa-AFP, Sapa-AP