The Zimbabwe opposition has declared power-sharing talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are deadlocked, but it has said it hopes the South African mediator can make progress.
Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai walked out after hours of talks on Thursday, directing reporters questions to his spokesman, Nelson Chamisa.
“We have reached a deadlock on all issues,” Chamisa said, saying at least 10 Cabinet posts remained in dispute.
PHOTO: EPA
He said they included the powerful ministries in charge of finance, police and the army — Mugabe is accused of using the latter two institutions to crush dissent.
Chamisa also said the factions could not agree on how to allot some governorships.
Chamisa said his faction hoped the mediator, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, could make headway.
Mugabe, who left about 45 minutes after Tsvangirai, did not refer to a deadlock, but told reporters differences remained and that talks would continue yesterday.
The opposition “has got their position, we have got our own position,” Mugabe said. “We’re always defending our position.”
The opposition has repeatedly accused Mugabe of trying to hold onto to too many key posts in the 31-member Cabinet agreed to in a Sept. 15 power-sharing deal. Under the deal, Mugabe’s party was to have 15 Cabinet posts, Tsvangirai’s 13 and the minor opposition faction led by Arthur Mutumbara three.
Without a political agreement, Zimbabwe has been rudderless as its economy collapses, and there were growing signs of impatience among ordinary Zimbabweans. Protesters gathered in the southern city of Bulawayo and outside the Harare hotel where negotiators met on Thursday, calling on the politicians to put their difference aside and begin addressing such issues as inflation, which is 231 million percent; shortages of food, medicine and most other basic goods; and growing hunger.
Politicians and generals who have long depended on Mugabe’s patronage are believed to be balking at losing their jobs.
Tsvangirai, too, is under pressure. The international community is unlikely to unlock much-needed aid and investment if Tsvangirai is seen as giving up too much, and his supporters at home already are worried he erred fatally by allowing Mugabe to retain any power.
Earlier on Thursday, the Herald quoted an unidentified official from Mugabe’s ruling party as saying compromises could be made in a Cabinet lineup Mugabe unilaterally announced last week. Mugabe had claimed the most powerful Cabinet posts for his own party, including the police ministry.
The optimism was dampened by later reports that Mugabe was only willing to share key posts, possibly by creating a system in which the same post would be rotated among politicians from the three parties.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS