Mugabe gives downbeat assessment of Zimbabwe talks

Angus Shaw

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was downbeat Monday as he left negotiations on his country’s political future, but said the talks would continue.

Asked by reporters whether the negotiations were going well, Mugabe said: “Not exactly.”

“We will meet tomorrow,” he added.

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 Sunday evening, and the repeated extensions indicate they are 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. Reporters were not immediately able to question Mbeki.

Tuesday’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 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, President George W. Bush expanded the number of Mugabe loyalists subjected to travel and other sanctions. That week, the European Union 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 try to subjugate Zimbabwe again. But Monday, he did not return to his accusations that the opposition was Britain’s puppet.

Mugabe spoke in English and Shona 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.

Mugabe held the runoff and was declared the overwhelming winner, though the exercise was widely denounced.

(Associated Press)