Maravi

Zim starts setting up unity govt

Zim starts setting up unity govt
By Kingsley Kaswende and George Chellah in Harare
Saturday September 13, 2008 [04:01]

POLITICAL parties in Zimbabwe have commenced setting up an inclusive government after endorsing the template of a unity agreement that will potentially end the crisis in the country. President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF and the two opposition MDC factions led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Arthur Mutambara "unanimously and unreservedly" struck the deal on Thursday night after marathon negotiations since Monday.

The unity talks had stalled on several occasions since the parties signed a memorandum of understanding spelling out the agenda and ground rules for unity negotiation on July 21.
The talks were necessitated by the inconclusive March 29 elections, which preceded a bloody campaign for the presidential runoff election of June 27 that claimed more than 100 lives and displaced over 30,000.

Tsvangirai, who had won the March election but failed to reach the magical 50 per cent plus one threshold, withdrew from the runoff citing violence and intimidation of his party members.

The SADC-appointed facilitator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, who arrived in Harare on Monday, announced the development that will possibly breath a new lease of life to the country's decade-long political and economic woes.

"We have concluded the negotiations that the three political parties represented in the parliament have been engaged in for some time since last year. An agreement has been reached on about all matters on the agenda of those negotiations.

There will be a formal signing ceremony on Monday at 10 o'clock in Harare at which point the document that has been signed by the political leaders of Zimbabwe will be released to the public," the jovial President Mbeki told journalists at a press briefing.

He said several African leaders would witness the event to express support for the agreement.

It is not yet known what the template document contains but it seems to have settled the sticking points regarding how much power President Mugabe would cede to the Prime Minister, Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai, whose signature had been elusive, confirmed the endorsement of the agreement when he emerged out of the five-hour meeting.

"...What I want to say is that there is a deal," he said, without explaining further.
President Mugabe left the Rainbow Towers Hotel, the venue of the talks, while journalists attended the press briefing and therefore could not be reached for a comment.
President Mbeki said the parties had commenced constituting the government, which will be unveiled next week.

"On Monday the leadership of Zimbabwe will also give a report concerning the constitutional changes and the composition of the inclusive government which has been agreed and they are going to be spending the next few days actually constituting that inclusive government," he said.

President Mbeki said going forward, the new government should immediately begin the process of winning back financial and moral support from the region and beyond.

"The government of Zimbabwe, with the support of the region and the African continent will from then on work very hard to mobilise support from the region, the African continent and the rest of the world.

This support is needed to assist the people of Zimbabwe to recover from the current challenges that the country faces. And we would hope that everybody in the world would support the agreement that has been reached and extend the very necessary hand of assistance for the country to recover from the socio-economic challenges," he said.

The United States and most European countries have recently categorically stated that they would not extend aid to Zimbabwe if President Mugabe remained a critical factor in the new leadership.

"We are confident that the region, the African continent and our friends around the world will respond to this particular challenge to give the necessary assistance so that the political agreement succeeds," the facilitator said.

President Mbeki said he was confident that the agreement would be sustainable.
"I'm confident that the leadership of Zimbabwe is committed to implementing the agreement. It is common recognition that the leaders of Zimbabwe carry a common vision which they must chat together, a common responsibility as a matter of urgency to address the challenges," he said.

President Mbeki has had to ignore stern criticism about his soft and patient approach in dealing with the Zimbabwe crisis.

His critics had wanted him to use a strong hand and to censure President Mugabe's regime.
However, he said he paid little attention to such criticism.
"We have never paid any particular attention to criticisms about the so-called quiet diplomacy.

All diplomacy is quiet, if it isn't quiet then it isn't diplomacy it's something else. We have agreed with the Zimbabwean parties for a long time that we will not conduct negotiations through the media and I'm glad that everybody has respected that.

Once you conduct negotiations publicly, it complicates your arrival at an agreement. It's not anything that has been of any particular concern to us, this criticism about the so-called quiet diplomacy, because we understood what was required here to produce a positive outcome and I'm glad that that process has produced the required outcome," he said.

He said he had been involved in difficult negotiations in countries such as Lesotho, Comoros , Burundi , DRC and Cote d'Ivoire using the same approach but that nobody ever protested that there was quiet diplomacy in those countries.

"Quiet diplomacy seemed to be a particular concern about Zimbabwe. The processes that were acceptable in other countries seemed not acceptable in Zimbabwe but it didn't bother us that much," he said.

He said it was important that the agreement that had been reached was purely Zimbabwean.

"At last we have come to a decision made by the people of Zimbabwe. It is not a facilitation outcome. It is the agreement of the leaders of Zimbabwe. There is no solution or settlement anywhere in the world that would survive if the people of a particular country don't own it," said President Mbeki.

Labels: NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT

posted by MrK @ 6:08 AM