Maravi

Mugabe has overstepped boundaries - US

COMMENT - Freedom House is closely related to the CIA, and is active in regime change operations (also called colour revolutions) worldwide. With it's illegal invasion of Iraq, it's own manipulated elections and the criminal nature of the present administration, the US and it's government institutions have lost all moral high ground in preaching about democracy anywhere in the world, especially about Zimbabwe, which is a situation they themselves helped create - right from their refusal to pay for land reform in 1997 as they had agreed up during the Lancaster House talks in 1979, right up to the present day.

Mugabe has overstepped boundaries - US
By Kingsley Kaswende in Harare
Thursday October 16, 2008 [14:35]

The United States has said Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has overstepped the boundaries of the power sharing agreement by allocating key ministries to his party, ZANU-PF. And a human rights campaign organization, Freedom House, has called on SADC to break its silence on President Mugabe for "provocative actions" that have endangered the power-sharing agreement.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday that there is now "a real bump in the road in terms of the implementation" of the September 15 agreement between President Mugabe and MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai.

Under the deal, mediated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, the opposition would control a combined 16 Cabinet seats and ZANU-PF would have 15.

The Zimbabwean government last Friday gazetted and published a list showing how it intends to divide the ministries.

It awarded itself key portfolios such as defense, finance, home and foreign affairs, justice, mining and land, and assigned the opposition relatively minor ministries such as constitutional affairs, service delivery and water management.

Tsvangirai rejected the allocation and threatened to break off talks on forming a coalition government if that was implemented.

Talks aimed at breaking the ministry-sharing impasse went into a third day yesterday as parties failed to agree on sharing the cabinet posts. MDC and ZANU-PF have negotiated for weeks over ministries such as defense, finance, home and foreign affairs which are thought to be essential to Zimbabwe 's recovery.

McCormack said Mugabe apparently overstepped the bounds of the September 15 deal in claiming several ministries that were not part of the power-sharing agreement.

He said trust in Zimbabwe 's long-term ruler had always been the open question when it came to the power-sharing deal. "We welcomed the agreement but we also held out final judgment until it was actually implemented," McCormack said.

"The devil is in the details of the implementation." He said the United States would wait to see how the current impasse would be resolved.
"Of course, any implementation solution has to be one that is acceptable to the MDC and Mr. Tsvangirai," he said.

Meanwhile, the Freedom House called on SADC to condemn the Zimbabwean government's move.

"A strong SADC statement that outlines potential disciplinary measures is needed strengthen Mbeki's hand as he prepares for crisis talks this week between Mugabe and his rivals," stated Freedom House executive director Jennifer Windsor.

"Freedom House is deeply concerned that ZANU-PF intends to drag out the negotiations even as millions of Zimbabweans face starvation.

Mbeki should have every tool at his disposal to broker a true power-sharing deal that resolves these outstanding issues so that Zimbabwe can quickly address its economic and humanitarian crises."

Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, FREEDOM HOUSE, MUGABE, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 3:43 PM