http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=2438
August 12, 2008
By Raymond
Maingire
HARARE - Weary Zimbabweans still have to wait a little longer
before they
know the outcome of the ongoing unity talks between President
Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF parties and the two opposition MDC
parties.
For the second successive day, the top level and highly secret
talks
involving leaders of the feuding parties have been adjourned to the
next day
without any clue as to what could really be transpiring behind
closed doors.
Mugabe, alongside his bitter rival, MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, who heads a breakaway faction of the same
party, continue to
maintain a thick veil of secrecy over their
deliberations.
Dozens of journalists, who continue to throng the Rainbow
Towers, venue for
the talks, were again disappointed on Monday evening after
the three leaders
again adjourned without shedding any light on the progress
of the talks.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is overseeing the
talks, remains in
Zimbabwe hoping to help thrash out the so far elusive
unity pact in time for
him to present it before the summit on the SADC heads
of State which he
hosts in his country starting Friday. Mbeki will take over
the chairmanship
of SADC during the summit. Failure in Harare is an option
that he cannot
easily contemplate, therefore.
Mbeki flew into
Zimbabwe Saturday evening and spent nearly 14 hours with
Mugabe, Tsvangirai
and Mutambara on Sunday while trying to iron out a number
of sticking points
holding up the signing of the deal.
But unlike the previous day, the
second day of the top level talks on Monday
was shorter as parties adjourned
shortly after 8pm having commenced only at
4 pm.
All the three
principals said the talks were continuing. As has become
normal practice at
the secret talks, they however refused to shed any light
as to what could
still be the cause of the continued delay.
President Mugabe, who left the
venue first, said the talks were scheduled to
continue on Tuesday. Asked to
comment on the so-called sticking points, the
Zimbabwean leader said these
had been resolved.
"Sticking issues overcome," he said as he was led to
his limousine.
Tsvangirai, who emerged after 10 minutes after Mugabe,
said nothing more
than merely echo Mugabe's statement.
"The
negotiations have been adjourned to tomorrow and we will advise on the
position as we make progress," he said.
Pressed to comment on the
sticking issues, the MDC leader said he was "not
at liberty to reveal
them".
Mutambara emerged 15 minutes after Tsvangirai.
"We are
adjourning until tomorrow, so the negotiations continue, thank you,"
he
said. He refused to take further questions on the matter.
But there are
fears the continued silence around the talks could be a signal
of the worst.
Speaking at the Heroes' Day celebrations in Harare on Monday
Mugabe revealed
more about deliberations at the negotiations than any other
delegate has
been able to so far.
VOA
By Peta
Thornycroft
Harare
11 August 2008
As
face-to-face talks between Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and
Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change continue in their second
day, hopes for a quick clean political settlement are receding. Peta
Thornycroft reports for VOA from Harare the South African-mediated talks are
bogged down over fundamental issues surrounding the division of powers for
Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai in an inclusive government.
Technical
teams began work on the outstanding issues at the negotiating
table, while
President Robert Mugabe went to the annual Hero's Day
commemoration at the
national shrine.
The talks, that began Sunday, broke off after many hours
of negotiations
about who would chair the cabinet, with Mr. Tsvangirai
insisting that he
should, because he won the first peaceful poll in March.
Mr. Mugabe and his
team insist that as president of an inclusive government,
that power should
remain with Mr. Mugabe.
Well-placed sources say
they are no longer optimistic that there will be an
easy breakthrough. There
are even suggestions from those close to the talks
that they may not be
concluded.
Later this week, Mr. Mugabe plans to attend a summit of the
Southern African
Development Community in South Africa.
Without a
deal, South African President Thabo Mbeki would not be able to
tell SADC,
which appointed him as mediator, that he has achieved a
settlement of
Zimbabwe's political crisis.
But other sources say both parties
understand that without a deal the
present economic chaos in Zimbabwe would
quickly deteriorate to social
catastrophe as there is very little food and
no foreign currency to import
it.
Zimbabwe needs western aid to
stabilize its currency and reduce inflation of
more than two million
percent, and to rebuild its shattered industrial and
agricultural
infrastructure.
In the streets of Harare, people said they were depressed
that a deal had
not been reached. One street vendor blamed Mr. Mugabe,
saying he should have
no place in a future administration and suggested he
should go to jail.
During his Hero's Day address, Mr. Mugabe spoke about
violence that wracked
Zimbabwe between the March 29 elections and the
presidential run off on June
27. He said if people try to take away
Zimbabwe's sovereignty, then people
can only react.
He said that God
gives people the power to protect themselves, even if that
means
violence.
Many analysts believe that Mr. Mugabe was referring to the
Movement for
Democratic Change. He has long accused the party of being a
stooge of the
West.
Mr. Tsvangirai won the most votes in the March
presidential election and his
party deprived ZANU-PF of its 28-year control
of parliament.
More than 120 people were killed before the run-off
presidential elections.
According to the United Nations most of the
perpetrators of the violence
were loyal to ZANU-PF.
Mr. Tsvangirai
withdrew from the presidential run off because of violence
against his
supporters. More than a dozen MDC legislators remain in hiding
in
neighboring countries or living away from their homes, fearing arrest.
Chris McGreal in Harare
The Guardian,
Tuesday August 12
2008
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is not happy with
Mugabe's
proposal of coalition cabinet reporting to the president rather
than the
prime minister. Photograph: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty
Images
Talks to end Zimbabwe's political crisis stalled yesterday as
Morgan
Tsvangirai resisted pressure to agree to Robert Mugabe retaining much
of his
power.
The negotiations resumed yesterday afternoon, after
breaking up without
agreement in the early hours of the morning, after 13
hours of talks at
which Movement for Democratic Change officials said Mugabe
made few real
concessions and rejected Tsvangirai's claim to be the
country's legitimate
leader because he won the last credible election, held
in March.
Tsvangirai agreed to Mugabe remaining in office as a ceremonial
president
but demanded that political power be shifted to him as an
executive prime
minister at the head of a coalition cabinet. But the
opposition said Mugabe
has demanded that the prime minister remain
subordinate to the president.
"Zanu-PF is not talking about conceding any
real power. They are talking
about giving up positions in cabinet but they
want to remain in control.
These guys aren't serious," the opposition
official said. "The differences
revolve around who will have power. They're
not giving up anything on that.
They entered these negotiations solely to
give up cosmetic issues."
A spokesman for the opposition said Tsvangirai
came under pressure from
South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, who is
acting as mediator, to allow
Mugabe to keep some degree of real power. But
the spokesman said the MDC
leader argued that would be a betrayal of the
voters.
"There is a lot of pressure on Tsvangirai ... People in the party
are
telling him that he cannot agree to a deal that does not recognise the
people's will and democracy. Mugabe ... should not be allowed to keep power
just because he terrorised the population into voting for him.
"The
pressure for us is coming from the people. They don't want to see some
kind
of half-hearted change. If we were to do that we would lose
credibility. If
Morgan takes something cosmetic from Zanu-PF he will lose
the support of the
Zimbabwean people."
Hours earlier Mugabe described the talks as "raising
the prospect for an
all-inclusive government" and said only minor obstacles
remained to an
agreement. He told the annual commemoration to mark the
country's liberation
war yesterday that Zimbabwe "is not for sale" and
warned the opposition not
to be "used by enemies" - usually meant to refer
to Britain, which he has
accused of destroying Zimbabwe's economy as a
punishment for redistributing
white-owned farms.
Mugabe was
accompanied at yesterday's talks by the hardline commander of the
Zimbabwean
military, Constantine Chiwenga, who has said he would not serve
under
Tsvangirai.
The Times
August 12, 2008
The country's
future depends on one man and three vital principles
Outside the Rainbow
Towers Hotel in Harare, inflation has surged past two
million per cent and
children survive on a bowl of gruel a day. Inside,
flowers have been ordered
for a ceremony. President Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's
opposition leader, have met face to face for the
first time since
power-sharing talks began three weeks ago. President Mbeki
of South Africa
has flown in and out again, but with a promise to return.
A deal to end
Mr Mugabe's stranglehold on power appeared tantalisingly close
last night.
Having implored Mr Mbeki to take his role of mediator more
seriously,
Zimbabwe's neighbours and the wider world will have little choice
but to
accept whatever may be agreed. But no pact will prove a viable basis
for
rebuilding the country unless the man who has brought about its
demolition
truly relinquishes control. Mr Tsvangirai can make this happen,
but he must
hold his nerve.
Three main sticking points have slowed progress towards
an agreement: Mr
Mugabe's reluctance to accept a purely titular presidency;
bargaining
between his Zanu (PF) party and Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) over ministerial portfolios in a new government of
national
unity; and disagreement over whether to hold new elections in two
years or
five.
There is only one acceptable resolution to the first
of these disputes. Mr
Mugabe must give way. Having stolen an election from
the MDC and disgraced
himself and his security forces with a subsequent
campaign of terror, he
will be luckier than he deserves to remain in office
even as a figurehead,
as has been mooted. To cede only some of his executive
powers to the new
post of prime minister proposed for Mr Tsvangirai would
not only mock the
hopes of all who have voted against Mr Mugabe and suffered
under him. It
could also condemn Zimbabwe to an indefinite feud between two
rival power
centres, reminiscent of the bloody struggle between Zanu (PF)
and Zapu (PF)
in the 1980s.
Mr Tsvangirai must therefore insist on
full day-to-day management of any
Cabinet assembled under him. He has said
that he is willing to work with
Zanu (PF) moderates. It remains to be seen
if they and the MDC can co-exist
in government. But it is essential that
hardliners such as Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the Minister of Rural Housing, and
Augustine Chihuri, Zimbabwe's
police commissioner, be removed from power. It
is equally vital that the
Joint Operations Command set up by Mr Mugabe to
co-ordinate the suppression
of dissent be dismantled rapidly.
The
MDC's negotiators must, finally, stand firm against Mr Mugabe's attempt
to
delay fresh elections for five years. He has already boasted of his
democratic credentials only to trample on democracy in practice. The MDC has
won the right to form a government and seek a fresh mandate, free from
intimidation, in two years.
Major concessions by the MDC in any of
these areas will effectively leave Mr
Mugabe in power. That would block the
release of £1 billion in US and
British aid. It would also leave Mr Mbeki
with nothing to show for his
heavily criticised "quiet diplomacy" towards
his northern neighbour. Mr
Mbeki is seeking to burnish his legacy almost as
urgently as Zimbabwe needs
aid. Mr Tsvangirai's hand may be stronger than he
thinks.
http://www.hararetribune.com/index.php?news=244
Pedzisai Ncube & Trymore Magomana |
Updated: 11 August, 2008 10:41:00
GMT(-6)
Mugabe's reluctance to cede
powers to Tsvangirai, the security chiefs'
refusal to be under the civilian
leadership of the MDC bogging talks down.
Harare -- The talks between the
MDC and ZANU-PF were supposed to have been
concluded on August 4, 2008, but
the irrevocable wrangling for power between
Robert Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai made that impossible.
Still, seven days after the deadline,
with the nation waiting, a GNU deal is
still far off as the two foes refuse
to budge from their respective
postions. Without a deal, no substantive
decisions are being made across the
country, be it in manufacturing, mining,
and the financial sector.
"Zimbabwe is at a standstill. The business
community is waiting for the
outcome of the talks to move forward," a
financial analyst with Barclays
Bank Zimbabwe said.
Although the
negotiators know that the country is at a standstill, there is
nothing they
can do because the talks have reached a stalemate and there
seems to be no
way forward. Even a 14-hour marathon face-to-face conference
between the two
parties, plus Arthur Mutambara, in the presence of Thabo
Mbeki yeilded
naught. Monday, the parties retreated to their bases to
restrategize and the
talks are now supposed to resume again Tuesday.
Western powers have
promised substantial aid to rebuild Zimbabwe's shattered
economy, but not if
Mr Mugabe still controls the Government.
"The major hold-up is the
refusal by Mugabe to cede his executive powers. He
is only agreeing to a
nominal prime minister post for Morgan Tsvangirai," an
opposition source
revealed the reason behind the hold up of the GNU deal.
The MDC leaders,
led by political strategist and MDC secretary general
Tendai Biti, have
refused out of hand that offer by ZANU-PF to make
Tsvangirai a ceremonial
prime minister. The MDC negotiators undestand that
any deal that leaves
Mugabe with executive powers will be rejected by the
MDC rank and file who
don't want to see Mugabe in office for even a single
more
day.
Mugabe's reluctance to give up power is backed up by the service
chiefs led
by General Constantine Chiwenga who are adamant that Tsvangirai
should never
have executive powers. Chiwenga was present at the talks on
Monday.
A ZANU-PF official, responding to a question as to why Mugabe was
refusing
to give up power said instead: "It looks like we have reached some
kind of
stalemate which is threatening the whole dialogue. Tsvangirai is
moving
goalposts, forcing us to negotiate issues which we had already agreed
upon."
The ZANU-PF official further said Tsvangirai was asking to reopen
talks on
the issue of Mugabe leading a new unity government, which ZANU-PF
says is
not open to negotiation.
"This is an issue that we had
settled and he (Tsvangirai) is also suggesting
that he must be given full
authority to appoint any new government."
The service chiefs and leading
ZANU-PF officials are afraid that if
Tsvangirai is given executive powers,
he will order that they be arrested
for the crimes they committed against
the people of Zimbabwe since 1980.
Almost three weeks ago when the talks
started, MDC and ZANU-PF fought over
who will have executive power. That is
still the case today, probably
tomorrow and... next week. -- Harare Tribune
News
http://www.nehandaradio.com
12 August
2008
By Doreen Mutemeri
While the main political actors
concentrate on the modalities of a
power-sharing government, hundreds of
vulnerable women are daily being raped
by Zanu PF militia in torture bases
dotted around the countrywide.
A big part of the reason why these
incidents are not coming out as
prominently as they should might be because
of the male dominated journalism
profession.
The male journalists I
want to argue have failed to articulate how
traumatizing rape as a tool of
political violence can be nor the scale of
the problem. In 2003 a
documentary 'In a Dark Time' was produced exposing
sexual abuse in Zimbabwe
that was perpetrated by pro-government militia.
Human rights group
Amnesty International, Human Rights watch and Physicians
for Human Rights
played key roles in documenting the sexual torture of women
during the
political violence that rocked Zimbabwe in the run-up to the 2000
parliamentary elections. Eight years on nothing has changed in terms of rape
as a tool of torture.
In 2001 a decision was made to acknowledge rape
as a war crime and the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia began prosecuting
rapists. Zimbabwe is confronted by the same
problem.
The so-called Youth Militia or Green Bombers have used rape as a
tool to
punish suspected MDC supporters who voted for their party and
President in
the March 29 harmonized election. The MDC have to think
carefully about
promising immunity from prosecution for Zanu PF officials
and thugs who
sanctioned or committed some of these acts because the pain
runs deep for
many.
At the recent AIDS conference in Mexico several
Zimbabwean women recounted
how they had been raped by Zanu PF militia. It is
shocking how rape and
other forms of sexual abuse are becoming more and more
common, even
strangley acceptable in some instances, as the victims blame
themselves or
their families add to the problem with accusatorial
comments.
Figures released by the MDC show that over 2000 of its members
were raped
after the historic March 29 election. It is even more worrying to
think of
the obvious risk of HIV infection that the victims have to contend
with in
that vicious lottery.
The Chairman of the Zimbabwe
Association of Doctors for Human Rights, Dr
Douglas Gwatidzo acknowledged
that many victims were not reporting their
rapes for fear of more
victimisation. So what is the true scale of the rape
crisis? I leave that to
the journalists to investigate and the politicians
to ponder over as they
meet in hotels to decide our fate.
Doreen Mutemeri is a United Kingdom
based gender activist.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
11 August 2008
The Zimbabwe NGO Human
Rights Forum issued a report Monday charging that
"crimes against humanity
have been and are being committed" in the country
in the post-election
period.
The group said the Zimbabwe National Army's prominent role in
post-election
political violence with war veterans and militia of the ruling
ZANU-PF party
pointed to state complicity.
Attorney Otto Saki of
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rghts, a component of
the NGO Human Rights
Forum, told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that
violence has tapered off NGO humanitarian efforts continue
to be
obstructed.
VOA
By Patience Rusere and Ntungamili Nkomo
Washington
11 August 2008
Zimbabwean observances
Monday of Heroes Day honoring fallen liberation
leaders provided a
counterpoint to the top-level power-sharing discussions
between President
Robert Mugabe, who gave a familiar speech denouncing what
he called Western
interference, and Morgan Tsvangirai, who declined to
attend the observances
at Heroes Acre outside Harare.
Mr. Mugabe was joined at the burial
ground, however, by Arthur Mutambara,
head of a rival formation of the
Movement for Democratic Change that
Tsvangirai founded in 1999, leading to
speculation and criticism that
Mutambara was seeking the president's
favor.
The president in his Heroes Day speech took up a favored theme,
accusing
Britain of meddling in the country's internal affairs and declaring
Zimbabwe
was quote "not for sale."
In an apparent oblique reference
to the Movement for Democratic Change,
President Mugabe warned his
countrymen that "if...you are being used by
enemies, stop it." But he added
that even if this were the case, such
unnamed Zimbabweans remained "family
members."
Mugabe later said the talks were advancing, speaking of "little
hurdles" to
be overcome.
Tsvangirai's absence from the ceremonies was
noted, though MDC officials for
some years have declined to participate in
what they consider to be a ruling
party ritual.
Tsvangirai
spokesman George Sibotshiwe told reporter Patience Rusere of
VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that the MDC formation wanted to avoid giving
the impression
that it was united with Mr. Mugabe at a function that he said
has been
"privatized" by ZANU-PF.
Mutambara's presence at Heroes Acre drew even
more attention, particularly
in light of the Heroes Day speech his MDC
formation circulated on Sunday
which condemned supposed Western interference
in terms not unlike those
often employed by Mr. Mugabe.
Mr. Mutambara
hailed the sacrifice and accomplishment of the liberation
fighters, then
turned to a denunciation of "the irritating ignorance,
political
insensitivity, double standards, and patronizing arrogance that
characterize
Western diplomacy with respect to our country."
He continued: "As we
finalize the political settlement to the impasse in our
country, we have
heard sentiments from the West indicating that they will
look at the
agreement and decide whether it is acceptable to them. Who are
they, to
superintend, judge and grade a collective decision by Africans? It
is not
the place for Western governments or their institutions to determine
whether
the agreement is right or wrong. It is strictly none of their
business."
Reporter Ntungamili Nkomo sought perspective on
Mutambara's broadside from
independent political analyst Last Moyo of
London, who said Zimbabwe needed
to rebuild ties to the West to encourage
investment in the country's
economic recovery, not launch
invective.
National Constitutional Assembly Director Earnest Mudzengi
said President
Mugabe's denunciation of the West indicated that he has not
changed.
http://www.independent.co.uk
Tuesday, 12 August
2008
Democracy is on the wane in Africa - but that's not
necessarily a bad thing.
The crisis in Zimbabwe is only the latest in a long
line of setbacks. Deeply
flawed elections in Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia
have checked the momentum of
the wave of democratisation that swept the
continent in the early 1990s.
But these reversals also expose the
weaknesses in the African version of
democracy and offer a chance to invest
in institutional reforms that would
yield a more realistic model than that
pursued in the past two decades. The
construct of multi-party democracy in
Africa was imposed at the end of the
Cold War when the United States nudged
"Big Men" towards political reforms.
Autocratic leaders who had managed
to stay in power by playing the West
against the Soviet Union suddenly found
themselves robbed of their patrons
and having to seek the consent to govern.
But a lamentable failure to invest
in institutional reforms meant that
democracy in Africa came to be viewed
purely as the formality of holding
periodic elections.
With the possible exception of South Africa, few
African nations have
embraced reforms that would strengthen the institutions
that underpin any
democracy. Judiciaries often serve at the whim of the
executive. The
security forces, as the appalling excesses in Zimbabwe have
shown, are
essentially militia in service to the presidency. Electoral
commissions do
not enjoy the confidence of the voting public.
In this
environment, elections are often national bribefests (witness
Nigeria, 2007)
or the sort of shambles on which basis Robert Mugabe is
currently in
power.
A more ominous outcome of institutional failure was on display in
Kenya
earlier this year where duelling ethnic communities showed an alarming
willingness to take up arms to acquire sole control of the powerful
executive.
It is important to learn from these mistakes. There needs
to be a
re-examination of the meaning of democracy in Africa. The half-way
house in
place only serves the interests of incumbents determined to hold on
to
power.
The West should also change its terms of engagement with
Africa to go beyond
applying pressure for transparency on the eve of
elections. Investing in a
clean judiciary, for example, has multiple effects
beyond engendering trust
in the political process. It is also a key factor
in boosting investor
confidence and would be an invaluable component in
boosting economic growth.
The same can be said of a professional police
force. All the evidence from
countries that have overcome corruption and
incompetence in the forces
indicates that improvements in areas such as
better housing, insurance and
health care are likely to yield far better
results than increasing pay.
All these investments must be anchored in
reformed constitutions that
endorse the greater freedoms and
responsibilities demanded by a democratic
system.
According to an
Afrobarometer survey in 2006, six in 10 Africans prefer
democracy to any
other form of government. This is unsurprising in a
continent that has
suffered terribly under alternative forms, such as
one-man rule and military
dictatorships.
The bloody farces in recent years could well lead to
erosion of this
confidence. Africa must dispense with the fallacy that
democracy is merely
the ritual of holding elections once every five
years.
murithi.mutiga@gmail.com