Mbeki says Zimbabwe deal possible before summit ends

16/08/2008| IslamWeb

South African President Thabo Mbeki said Saturday a deal to end Zimbabwe's crisis could be reached this weekend during a regional summit with the country's political rivals in attendance.

Speaking at the summit's opening in Johannesburg, Mbeki said finalising talks would allow the country to "extricate the masses of the people from the dire straits in which they find themselves".

"This summit affords us the possibility to assist the Zimbabwean parties to finalise their negotiations so that together they can engage the work to achieve national healing and reconciliation," said Mbeki, the mediator for the Zimbabwe talks.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe entered the summit with the heads of other southern African nations, while his arch-rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, took a seat in the front row of invited guests.

The audience rose as Mugabe and the other leaders walked in, but the 84-year-old Zimbabwean president did not receive a loud ovation as he had at a previous summit of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Mugabe's attendance at the meeting was controversial, with Botswana's president snubbing the gathering after his government said it did not recognise the Zimbabwean leader's re-election.

Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande, speaking at the summit, harshly criticised Mugabe's re-election in a widely condemned June run-off poll, calling it a "blot on democracy".

Pande was speaking on behalf of Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who remains hospitalised after suffering a stroke in June. Mwanawasa has previously said it was "scandalous for SADC to remain silent on Zimbabwe".

Regional trade unions also planned protests and a group called the Zimbabwean Exile Forum (ZEF) said it was launching an urgent legal action at the SADC tribunal in Windhoek to dispute Mugabe's invitation.

The crisis that intensified following Mugabe's re-election in the June run-off poll was high on the summit's agenda.

SADC's troika on security issues agreed late Friday that a deal to resolve the crisis should be signed during the summit, a foreign minister who attended the meeting told AFP.

"We agreed at the (security) organ that the agreement should be signed within the period of the summit," the minister who declined to be named said.

The body includes Angola, Tanzania and Swaziland.

Mugabe and the leaders of both of the country's opposition factions separately addressed the meeting, the minister said.

Referring to the Zimbabwean officials, the minister said, "All the parties appear to be agreeable (to reaching an agreement this weekend), but it's a wait and see situation."

A South African official close to the talks said remaining sticking points in the dialogue included whether Mugabe would retain the right to hire and fire ministers and how long a transitional government would remain in place.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is seeking a clause stating that if one of the parties pulls out of the government of national unity, elections would be held within 90 days, according to the official.

Power-sharing talks stalled when three days of negotiations adjourned on Tuesday after Tsvangirai said he needed more time to consider a deal agreed by Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, who heads the smaller opposition faction.

Tsvangirai believes he has the right to the lion's share of power since he finished ahead of Mugabe in the March first round of the presidential election.

The ruling ZANU-PF party has insisted Mugabe must be recognised as president in any deal, as he won the June vote in which he was the only candidate after Tsvangirai boycotted it, saying rising violence against his supporters had left dozens dead and thousands injured.

An SADC observer team gave the March first round of voting in Zimbabwe a largely clean bill of health, but the bloc's mission said the June run-off "did not represent the will of the people."

Mbeki as mediator will update his peers on the state of the negotiations at the summit.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:

Mugabe

AFP