Diplomat calls for Tsvangirai to head unity government

The US’ top diplomat for Africa said yesterday any national unity government in Zimbabwe should be headed by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who Washington believes won a March 29 election.

While a partial election recount showed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) wrested a parliamentary majority from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, results of a parallel presidential poll have not been released.

Election officials said they hoped to compile all statistics from the presidential election by today for verification by the candidates before they are published.

They are expected to signal a run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who says he won the election outright.

“The key here is that the people’s will be respected,” Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said in an interview.

national unity

“So if there is going be an inclusive government ... if you want to use the word, government of national unity, I believe it should be led by whom the people voted for which is Morgan Tsvangirai,” Frazer said in Zambia, part of a regional tour in which Zimbabwe has been a focus of talks.

A commentary in Zimbabwe’s state-run newspaper the Herald last week floated the idea of a unity government, led by Mugabe. The MDC has said any government it would form would be inclusive, but has not spelled out details.

Frazer also said regional leaders had to tell Mugabe loud and clear that post-election violence — in which the MDC says at least 15 people have been killed — had to end immediately.

The government denies it is waging a campaign of violence.

Until now, parliament has been little more than a rubber-stamp for Mugabe’s policies. But if he remains president, his loss of parliament would make governing more difficult because he would need opposition support to pass legislation.

charade

An editorial in Zimbabwe’s pro-opposition the Standard urged Tsvangirai to boycott any run-off since it would be a “charade.”

The weekly said yesterday a free and fair vote was not possible in the current environment, and called on the MDC to focus on collecting evidence of violence to help prosecute Mugabe’s ZANU-PF supporters in the future.

Meanwhile lawyers for the opposition said yesterday they were seeking a court order for access to more than 200 activists detained by armed riot police in a swoop on MDC headquarters in Harare on Friday.

Lawyers said the activists should be either charged or released by today.

The MDC also took out a full page in the Standard listing eight of the 15 people it says have been killed by government supporters in post-election violence.

Among the victims listed was a five-year old boy who

allegedly burnt to death after his home in the district of Uzumba was set on fire by ZANU-PF supporters.