Zimbabwe talks open without Tsvangirai

MBABANE – African leaders opened a special meeting yesterday aimed at saving a power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe, but opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out in protest at delays in receiving his travel papers.

Tsvangirai had been due to meet in Swaziland’s capital Mbabane with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and four other regional heads of state to break a five-week deadlock over forming a unity government. But Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the former union leader had only received emergency travel papers late on Sunday, calling the delay an “insult” to the man meant to become prime minister under the unity accord.Tsvangirai has not been granted a normal passport for nearly a year, and is only allowed to leave the country on emergency travel documents valid for a single trip.”We are not travelling with this (emergency document).It’s an insult,” the MDC’s chief negotiator Tendai Biti told reporters in Johannesburg.He urged the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the 15-nation regional bloc at the centre of the Mbabane talks, to convene an emergency summit to find a solution to the crisis.”We want an extraordinary meeting of SADC not only to look at outstanding issues but to say to President Mugabe: ‘enough is enough’,” he said.But Biti insisted his party would not pull out of the power-sharing accord, saying: “We’ll be the last to walk out of the deal.”An MDC official in Harare said the delay in issuing the travel document showed that Mugabe was not sincere in wanting to negotiate.Mugabe’s regime “seemed to not be taking the issue seriously,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.George Charamba, Mugabe’s spokesman, said the regional leaders were trying to convince Tsvangirai to come, and that Swaziland’s King Mswati III had sent his personal jet to Harare to pick him up.”We are waiting for him and we think he will come.He was just playing hard to get,” Charamba said.Charamba also said that Tsvangirai, whose passport expired last year and was not renewed, had been given an emergency travel document “because Zimbabwe is running out of paper for passports …because of sanctions.”The spat over travel papers was the latest twist in the five-week battle over the unity accord, which would keep 84-year-old Mugabe as president while naming Tsvangirai to the new post of prime minister.But the two have failed to agree on who should control powerful ministries – particularly home affairs, which oversees the police force.Mugabe’s chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa warned at the weekend that SADC should only issue “guidance” on how to end the impasse rather than impose any solution.Mbeki mediated four long days of talks between the rivals in Harare last week.After failing to break the impasse, they had agreed to turn to SADC’s security body – currently headed by Swaziland – to find a solution.The talks opened with Mugabe and Mbeki along with South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, King Mswati and Mozambican President Armando Emilio Guebuza.Angola’s Foreign Minister Assuncao dos Anjos also attended, though it was unclear what progress could be made without Tsvangirai.Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a first round presidential vote in March, when the MDC also forced the president’s long-ruling Zanu-PF party into the minority in parliament for the first time.But the former union leader failed to win enough votes for an outright victory and then pulled out of the run-off in June, accusing the regime of coordinating a brutal campaign of violence that left scores of his supporters dead.The political deadlock has dimmed hopes for halting Zimbabwe’s stunning economic collapse, with the country buckling under the world’s highest rate of inflation at 231 million percent.Nearly half the population needs UN food aid, while 80 per cent of the people are living in poverty.Nampa-AFPBut Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the former union leader had only received emergency travel papers late on Sunday, calling the delay an “insult” to the man meant to become prime minister under the unity accord.Tsvangirai has not been granted a normal passport for nearly a year, and is only allowed to leave the country on emergency travel documents valid for a single trip.”We are not travelling with this (emergency document).It’s an insult,” the MDC’s chief negotiator Tendai Biti told reporters in Johannesburg.He urged the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the 15-nation regional bloc at the centre of the Mbabane talks, to convene an emergency summit to find a solution to the crisis.”We want an extraordinary meeting of SADC not only to look at outstanding issues but to say to President Mugabe: ‘enough is enough’,” he said.But Biti insisted his party would not pull out of the power-sharing accord, saying: “We’ll be the last to walk out of the deal.”An MDC official in Harare said the delay in issuing the travel document showed that Mugabe was not sincere in wanting to negotiate.Mugabe’s regime “seemed to not be taking the issue seriously,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.George Charamba, Mugabe’s spokesman, said the regional leaders were trying to convince Tsvangirai to come, and that Swaziland’s King Mswati III had sent his personal jet to Harare to pick him up.”We are waiting for him and we think he will come.He was just playing hard to get,” Charamba said.Charamba also said that Tsvangirai, whose passport expired last year and was not renewed, had been given an emergency travel document “because Zimbabwe is running out of paper for passports …because of sanctions.”The spat over travel papers was the latest twist in the five-week battle over the unity accord, which would keep 84-year-old Mugabe as president while naming Tsvangirai to the new post of prime minister.But the two have failed to agree on who should control powerful ministries – particularly home affairs, which oversees the police force.Mugabe’s chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa warned at the weekend that SADC should only issue “guidance” on how to end the impasse rather than impose any solution.Mbeki mediated four long days of talks between the rivals in Harare last week.After failing to break the impasse, they had agreed to turn to SADC’s security body – currently headed by Swaziland – to find a solution.The talks opened with Mugabe and Mbeki along with South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, King Mswati and Mozambican President Armando Emilio Guebuza.Angola’s Foreign Minister Assuncao dos Anjos also attended, though it was unclear what progress could be made without Tsvangirai.Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a first round presidential vote in March, when the MDC also forced the president’s long-ruling Zanu-PF party into the minority in parliament for the first time.But the former union leader failed to win enough votes for an outright victory and then pulled out of the run-off in June, accusing the regime of coordinating a brutal campaign of violence that left scores of his supporters dead.The political deadlock has dimmed hopes for halting Zimbabwe’s stunning economic collapse, with the country buckling under the world’s highest rate of inflation at 231 million percent.Nearly half the population needs UN food aid, while 80 per cent of the people are living in poverty.Nampa-AFP