Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano said on Friday he is ”ready” to mediate between Zimbabwe’s ruling party and the opposition, following his appointment to broker talks in the crisis-hit Southern African country.
”I can confirm the appointment as mediator of the African Union for Zimbabwe and I am ready to start to do my job,” he told reporters in Windhoek, where he met Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba.
”I will now assess if the two sides wish to talk to each other,” Chissano said, adding that ”if they wish to talk and if they need a facilitator, I will assist them with the talks”.
The former Mozambican president arrived late on Thursday from Zambia for a stop-over in Windhoek to brief Pohamba on preparations for the United Nations General Assembly, which starts in New York next month.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth because the 2002 presidential elections, which returned Mugabe to power, were deemed unfair. Mugabe later quit the club of former British territories in protest.
Chissano said last month that he planned to visit Zimbabwe at the request of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current AU head, but that no date had been set.
Mugabe on Monday ruled out talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), dismissing its members as ”unwitting stooges and puppets” of former colonial ruler Britain.
”The man who needs to be spoken to in order to see reason resides at Number 10 Downing Street,” said Mugabe, referring to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said last week that he was ready to sit down for talks with Mugabe to resolve the country’s deepening political and economic crises, compounded by a recent government urban clean-up campaign that has left hundreds of thousands homeless.
Three elections held in Zimbabwe since 2000 have been mired in controversy, with the opposition refusing to accept the outcome.
The political crisis has been coupled with an economic meltdown due in part to a sharp drop in agricultural output following the land-reform programme launched in 2000 in which about 4 000 white-owned commercial farms were seized and redistributed to landless blacks. — Sapa-AFP