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Zimbabwe power-sharing talks fail
HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed Friday to agree on who should control powerful ministries, leaving their proposed unity government in doubt.
After four days of lengthy negotiations, Tsvangirai said he still hoped that diplomatic efforts by fellow African countries would find a way to save the month-old power-sharing deal, seen as the best chance for rescuing the country from economic collapse.
The failure to reach agreement was also a blow to former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the original pact but whose mediation this week could not bridge differences among the rivals.
Mugabe declined to explain the deadlock in the talks, saying only: "They went in the wrong direction."
But Tsvangirai said the rivals remained far apart on several issues, most importantly the distribution of powerful cabinet posts in the proposed unity government.
"Regrettably, after four days of intense negotiations, we have failed to agree on the... key issue, which is the equitable allocation of ministerial posts and the composition of cabinet," Tsvangirai told reporters.
"We believe that for an inclusive government to work, the principles of equitable sharing of power... should be embraced. It appears we are far apart on this principle," Tsvangirai said.
He said that both sides had agreed for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to consider the deadlock, with the grouping's three-nation security panel due to meet on Monday.
"Hopefully there will be a breakthrough next week," Tsvangirai added.
Under the power-sharing deal, 84-year-old Mugabe was to remain as president while Tsvangirai takes the new post of prime minister.
But Tsvangirai threatened to pull out of the deal after Mugabe announced last weekend that he would award key ministries to his own party, giving him a firm grip on the security forces.
Mbeki flew to Harare in the hope of saving the accord, which he brokered just days before his own party forced him to resign as South Africa's president.
Analysts had suggested that his reduced stature as a former head of state would complicate his mediation effort.
The United States and the European Union have already threatened to toughen their sanctions on Mugabe's regime if the unity accord falls apart.
Western countries insist that any deal must respect the outcome of the first round of presidential voting in March, when Tsvangirai handed Mugabe his first electoral defeat since independence from Britain in 1980.
The former union leader failed to win enough votes to declare outright victory and then pulled out of the run-off in June, accusing the regime of coordinating a brutal campaign of political violence that left more than 100 of his supporters dead.
The political stalemate has shattered the dreams of ordinary Zimbabweans, who had briefly dared to believe last month that a unity government might be able to rebuild their devastated economy.
Zimbabweans endure daily struggles for survival in a country buckling under the world's highest inflation rate, at 231 million percent.
Once one of Africa's most prosperous nations, Zimbabwe's stunning economic collapse has caused critical food shortages, with nearly half its people needing UN aid and 80 percent of the population living in poverty.
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The Associated Press - 34 minutes ago - Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Talks Fail to Produce Accord, AFP Says
Bloomberg - 38 minutes ago - Mugabe says power-sharing talks 'went in wrong direction'
Africasia - 1 hour ago
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