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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Zimbabwe's Mugabe ready to talk to opposition |
| 2008-07-03 |
| Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe welcomes African Union’s call for a unity government and is ready to talk to the opposition to end the country’s political crisis, said one of his ministers on Wednesday. African leaders at a summit in Egypt on Tuesday urged Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to begin negotiations to end the crisis over Mugabe’s re-election in a widely criticised one-candidate poll from which Tsvangirai withdrew. “The AU resolution is in conformity to what President Mugabe said at his inauguration, when he said we are prepared to talk in order to resolve our problems,” Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told reporters, adding, “We are committed to talk, not just with Tsvangirai but to other parties as well.” Conditions ‘not right for talks’: Meanwhile, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday spurned the call from African leaders for talks with President Robert Mugabe on forming a unity government, saying conditions were not yet right. Tsvangirai, who boycotted a widely criticised June 27 election run-off, said Mugabe must first stop attacks on opposition supporters and demanded that negotiations take place on the basis of a March 29 first round vote, which he won. “Significantly, the conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe are not conducive to negotiations. If dialogue is to be initiated, it is essential that the ZANU-PF stops the violence, halts the persecution of MDC leaders and supporters,” he told a news conference in Harare. Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which defeated Mugabe’s ZANU-PF in parliamentary election, should be recognised as Zimbabwe’s legitimate government. Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a new five-year term on Sunday after election authorities announced he had won around 85 percent of the vote in a run-off, which was condemned by monitors and much of world opinion as violent and unfair. Mugabe has branded the MDC a puppet of former colonial power Britain and the United States and vowed to never let it rule Zimbabwe. Western countries are discussing whether to toughen sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leaders. |
| Posted by:Fred |