Zimbabwe’s rivals will resume make-or-break power-sharing talks on Tuesday after two days of negotiations failed to produce a deal following Robert Mugabe’s widely condemned re-election.
The talks, mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki, were planned to start after a speech by President Mugabe to mark national Armed Forces Day, a government official said.
The rivals have refused to comment on details of the talks, but Business Day reported that the ruling Zanu-PF was blaming opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai for stalling a deal.
”A Zanu-PF official said Tsvangirai wanted a transfer of power to him and not a deal to share power,” the paper reported.
The Star quoted a ”member of the talks” as saying the opposition was objecting to Mugabe’s insistence on holding on to presidential powers, in an apparent reference to offers that would see him take on a more ceremonial role.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and the head of a smaller Movement for Democratic Change faction, Arthur Mutambara, had spent about four hours at a Harare hotel on Monday in the follow-up to marathon talks the previous day.
Asked about sticking points as he left the hotel last evening, the 84-year-old president said ”they will be overcome”, adding that the talks would continue Tuesday.
Tsvangirai said as he exited that ”we will advise on progress later”.
Both Mbeki’s government and Mugabe had reported progress in the talks ahead of the South African leader’s arrival in Harare on Saturday.
But the political rivals have said little publicly about what sticking points were holding up the discussions over the last couple days.
‘Not for sale’
Speaking earlier on Monday during commemorations honouring fighters who died in the liberation war against white minority rule, Mugabe said Zimbabwe ”was not for sale” and ”will never be a colony again”.
He also called for ”unity guided by basic principles”.
”If you are on the enemy’s side or you are being used by enemies, stop it,” said Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean leader has often sought to portray Tsvangirai as a stooge of former colonial power Britain, though his rhetoric has cooled in recent weeks after the two sides engaged in talks.
Sunday’s talks broke up more than 13 hours after the leaders gathered at the hotel, with Mugabe saying afterwards he was ”confident” a deal was within reach.
Zimbabwe’s crisis intensified after Mugabe’s re-election in a June 27 presidential run-off widely condemned as a sham.
Tsvangirai boycotted the presidential run-off despite finishing ahead of Mugabe in the March first-round vote, citing violence against his supporters that had killed dozens and injured thousands.
The opposition leader believes his first-round total gives him the right to the lion’s share of power. The ruling Zanu-PF party has insisted Mugabe must be recognised as president in any deal, as he won on June 27.
Negotiations have reportedly included proposals for Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, to take on a more ceremonial role in exchange for amnesty from prosecution, with Tsvangirai being made executive prime minister.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on regional leaders to pressure Zimbabwe’s government to stop what it called continued violence that threatens to undermine the efforts to end the country’s political crisis.
In a report, ”They Beat Me like a Dog”: Political Persecution of Opposition Activists and Supporters in Zimbabwe, the New-York based rights group accused the Zanu-PF and its supporters of killings, beatings and arbitrary arrests of opposition MDC MPs and activists.
It urged the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to take a tough stand against the alleged abuses at its August 16 summit in South Africa.
Human Rights Watch said SADC should ensure that Zimbabwe’s police ”immediately dismantle all torture camps and bases throughout the country and prosecute those responsible for torture and other mistreatment”. — AFP, Reuters