Talks to try to find a solution to Zimbabwe’s political crisis continued in Harare yesterday despite a downbeat assessment by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on the progress so far.
Asked by reporters after he left the talks on Monday whether the negotiations on a power-sharing government were going well, Mugabe said: “Not exactly,” but said that negotiations would continue.
Mugabe, his rivals and South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating, have been in closed-door talks at a Harare hotel since Sunday morning. The talks had been expected to end on Sunday evening, and the repeated extensions indicated they were deadlocked.
The chief obstacle has been differences over what role, if any, Mugabe would have in a possible unity government. Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he could work with moderates from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, but not with Mugabe. ZANU-PF has insisted Mugabe remain president, and he may be balking at ceding much power to Tsvangirai.
Mugabe left Monday’s session before Mbeki or Tsvangirai, who said as he left that “we will advise on the issues as we move forward.” He did not elaborate.
Yesterday’s session was scheduled for the afternoon, after celebrations of Armed Forces Day, a Zimbabwean national holiday.
The talks in Harare involving the top leaders expand on negotiations their deputies had been holding in South Africa since the factions signed a July 21 agreement setting out terms for power-sharing negotiations.
In a speech earlier on Monday, Mugabe called the July 21 agreement an “auspicious development [that] has paved the way for full-scale negotiations raising the prospect for an all-inclusive government.”
Days after the talks framework was signed, US President George W. Bush expanded the number of Mugabe loyalists subjected to travel and other sanctions. That week, the EU broadened similar sanctions.
“It is regrettable that our detractors continue to impose more sanctions,” Mugabe said in his speech. “We therefore call on Britain and its allies to remove sanctions to enable us to freely chart our destinies.”
Mugabe has repeatedly accused former colonial power Britain of plotting to subjugate Zimbabwe again. But on Monday, he did not return to his accusations that the opposition was Britain’s puppet.
Mugabe spoke in English and Shona on Monday for about 25 minutes — unusually brief for him — to more than 10,000 people at a cemetery outside Harare on the holiday honoring political leaders and veterans of the struggle against colonial rule.
The March elections led to waves of violence across Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai came first in a field of four, but did not win by the margin necessary to avoid a second round against second-place finisher Mugabe. Tsvangirai withdrew from the June 27 runoff because of attacks on his supporters blamed on Mugabe’s party militants and security forces.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS