Zimbabwe’s ruling party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change held their first talks on Thursday since the widely condemned re-election of President Robert Mugabe last month, but the MDC denied substantive negotiations had started.
Both sides have been under heavy African and world pressure to enter negotiations since Mugabe’s re-election in a June 27 poll boycotted by the opposition because of campaign violence.
Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said senior officials were attending talks in Pretoria but said they were merely presenting conditions under which negotiations could take place, including an end to violence against the opposition.
”We have stated that no such negotiations can take place while the Zanu-PF regime continues to wage war on my party and the people of Zimbabwe. This position has not changed,” he said in a statement.
The MDC says more than 100 of its supporters were killed during the campaign by militias loyal to Mugabe (84) and that the violence has continued since the vote.
Tsvangirai said negotiations could not begin until a series of conditions were met including the end of violence, release of 1 500 imprisoned MDC supporters, the resumption of aid by humanitarian organisations and the appointment of a permanent envoy from the African Union.
Diplomatic sources said a breakaway faction of the MDC, led by Arthur Mutambara, was also taking part in the Pretoria talks mediated by South Africa.
Western nations led by former colonial ruler Britain and the United States, who have condemned Mugabe’s re-election as illegitimate, are pushing the UN Security Council on Friday or Saturday to impose sanctions on Mugabe’s inner circle, as well as an arms embargo on Zimbabwe.
South Africa, backed in the past by veto wielding council members Russia and China, opposes sanctions.
Zimbabwe’s High Court on Wednesday relaxed bail conditions on MDC secretary general Tendai Biti and gave him back his passport, responding to a petition by his lawyers who said he should be allowed to travel for talks in South Africa.
Biti, who faces charges of treason, was leading the MDC delegation at the Pretoria talks, Tsvangirai said. The composition of the Zanu-PF team was not immediately known.
Crisis
The June 27 election and its condemned outcome have worsened the crisis in Zimbabwe, whose economy has collapsed, sending millions of refugees into neighbouring states including South Africa and increasing pressure for a solution.
The once prosperous nation is crippled by the world’s worst inflation rate, estimated to be at least two million percent.
Mugabe has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980.
The African Union, at a summit last month, called for talks leading to a national unity government.
Many AU members oppose sanctions but Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf on Thursday came out in favour, telling reporters in Johannesburg that the move was intended to send a message to African leaders that they should do something about Zimbabwe.
”Sanctions don’t always work, as you know. But I think the fact that it does send a strong message about the disagreement against those things that are really causing a country and its people to suffer makes it appropriate for those actions.”
Anglophone West African countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia and the continent’s most populous nation, Nigeria, have been among Mugabe’s strongest critics, together with his neighbours in Botswana and Zambia.
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a March 29 first round presidential poll but fell short of the absolute majority required to avoid a run-off.
Mugabe blames the opposition for the bloodshed.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has mediated unsuccessfully in the Zimbabwean crisis for more than a year, drawing increasing criticism. The MDC says he favours Mugabe and has called for expanded mediation from the AU and the United Nations.
Johnson-Sirleaf also called for another mediator and suggested a high-profile figure.
Some African leaders support a power-sharing solution in Zimbabwe like the one mediated by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to end Kenya’s bloody post-election crisis this year. – Reuters