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.
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