Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe cast fresh doubt on Thursday on expectations of a power-sharing agreement with the opposition, saying that talks to end a ruinous political crisis were ”stuck”.
”We have not gone anywhere. We are still stuck at the same point where those from the MDC still want to govern,” Mugabe said, referring to his opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change.
”They want Mugabe to go,” the veteran president said during a meeting with tribal chiefs in the southern town of Bulawayo.
”Where should I go? I can’t go anywhere. It is humiliating to be negotiating with a party sponsored by countries pushing for regime change,” Mugabe added, reiterating claims that Tsvangirai is a puppet of the West, especially of former colonial ruler Britain.
The 84-year-old leader vented his frustration shortly before the deadlocked rivals entered a fourth day of talks in Harare.
Mugabe arrived about 90 minutes late for the talks in Harare which were due to resume at 2pm GMT.
Twelve hours of negotiations chaired by South African President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday brought the sides closer to a power-sharing deal, with Mugabe at that point saying a deal would ”hopefully” be signed on Thursday.
Tsvangirai said earlier that ”very little is left” to be agreed, but gave no details of the sticking points.
Business Day reported that Mugabe was refusing to sign a deal which would curtail his presidential powers.
The paper quoted sources as saying the veteran president was refusing to sign a proposal that would entail an equal share of executive powers with Tsvangirai.
The daily said some of the issues to be thrashed out on Thursday include how many ministers each party will have and how long a transitional government would rule.
Rebuke from Annan
Meanwhile, former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan slammed the African Union on Thursday for not endorsing the opposition victory in March elections.
He told a conference in Berlin he was ”disappointed in the African Union. The African Union should have endorsed the results and said to Mugabe: you are not a legally elected president.”
In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said any power-sharing deal should reflect the outcome of the first set of elections this year which were won by the opposition.
”We want an outcome that reflects the democratic will of the Zimbabwe people,” Brown told his monthly news conference.
”We want an outcome particularly that reflects the election that was the first election when obviously the MDC party showed that it had popular support,” he said, referring to the first round poll won by the MDC leader.
Amid signs that the months-long talks process was reaching a conclusion, Mbeki cancelled a planned visit to Swaziland on Thursday so he could remain in Harare to press for a deal.
The talks have long been deadlocked over the allocation of executive power between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Mugabe won controversial June elections unopposed after Tsvangirai withdrew, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters.
Tsvangirai had won the first round of the presidential election in March, but fell short of an absolute majority.
Mugabe has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, but his party lost its parliamentary majority to the MDC for the first time in legislative elections in March.
While the political crisis has dragged on, Zimbabwe’s economy has continued its freefall with the world’s highest inflation rate – 11,2-million percent in June, according to official figures. – AFP
