Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has turned down an offer from former Mozambican leader Joaquim Chissano to mediate between the Zimbabwe government and the opposition, the former president said on Wednesday.
”President Mugabe said clearly there is no need [for] such talks,” Chissano told reporters on the fringes of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Gaborone.
”It is an internal problem that they can handle through the democratic institutions in Zimbabwe,” he said, adding that this message was conveyed to him through Zimbabwean officials.
The African Union announced this month that its chairperson, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, had appointed Chissano to ”mediate in Zimbabwe.” Copies of his letter of appointment was sent to Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Chissano, during a recent visit to Tunis, said he would be willing to broker talks between Mugabe’s government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, but added that he first had to find out whether the two parties were interested.
Mugabe has ruled out talks with the MDC which has said in turn that it was not interested in discussions with the government either.
Chissano said he did not expect to meet with Mugabe during the SADC summit in Gaborone.
Asked whether he thought Zimbabwe needed help, Chissano replied: ”My opinion is yes, the world must help Zimbabwe to solve their problems when they request that.”
Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic, political and social crisis, grappling with triple-digit inflation, spiralling unemployment and an acute scarcity of essential goods.
Meanwhile, a pilot project has been set up by various international humanitarian agencies to provide shelter to Zimbabweans affected by the government’s controversial urban clean-up campaign.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, said the project was being implemented by UN-Habitat in partnership with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Zimbabwean government.
About 123 families were benefiting from shelter packages provided by the partners. ”If the programme is successful, UNDP plans to reach 40 000 households countrywide, in conjunction with government allocation of plots for housing,” Dujarric noted.
The World Food Programme had ”redirected 1 450 tonnes of food from its ongoing efforts in the country to assist the victims of the housing evictions” while the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) is providing water, sanitation and education, and also helping to reunite displaced children with their families. The IOM has been providing tents.
Unicef spokesperson James Elder said the pilot project at Headlands, in Manicaland province on the Mozambique border, was ”in a way a case of UN best practice, with all UN agencies [and the non-UN] IOM pushing in the same direction under difficult circumstances to help the people of Zimbabwe”.
He added that ”the main concern is the dislocation [of people] … but one of the most interesting things that I’ve found from a recent Unicef assessment of the impact on the population and children’s schooling is that 90% of children affected remain in school”.
This underlined the value Zimbabweans placed on education.
”I think, obviously, they are under economic stress, but it’s such a positive development, and a very clear example of their resolve and the sacrifices Zimbabweans are making to ensure their children continue in school,” Elder said.
”We want the international community to offer support to ensure that this positive culture does not disappear.”
Dujarric noted that the planned humanitarian appeal for Zimbabwe was still being finalised but in the meantime a number of UN agencies were providing food and various other services to people affected by the mass evictions. – Sapa-AFP, Irin