Zimbabwe power deal holds out hope for peace

Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe and his bitter enemy Morgan Tsvangirai today agreed to hold talks to resolve the country’s political and economic crisis within two weeks.

The deal calls for two weeks of talks and commits ruling and opposition parties to “creating a genuine viable, permanent and sustainable solution.”

The leaders also agreed on the “prevention of violence” in the agreement, which comes after nearly three months of state-sponsored election violence blamed on Mugabe.

It also calls for a new constitution and to restore the economy shattered by government policy.

Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai signed the deal in Harare nearly three months after Zimbabwe’s disputed March presidential election.

Mugabe urged negotiators to act without influence from Europe or the United States.

Mr Tsvangirai said he will be “putting the interests of Zimbabwe at the forefront”.

The deal brokered by South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki comes amid international pressure following Mugabe’s one-man presidential run-off election last month.

The breakthrough came after Mr Mbeki agreed last week to work closely with the UN and the African Union in mediating the crisis amid opposition accusations that he favours Mugabe.

Mr Tsvangirai had pulled out of the run-off, after facing deadly political violence against his supporters.

Mugabe said power-sharing talks would “chart a new way” for the country and the agreement with the opposition included amendments to the constitution and some laws.

Many observers and analysts see a coalition, perhaps with Mugabe as president and Mr Tsvangirai as prime minister or vice president as the only way to lead the nation out of the impasse and begin reversing its economic collapse.

The signing is “a positive step forward in the ongoing dialogue” to resolve Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis, South Africa’s foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said.

For Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, it was a rare meeting of two long-standing enemies. They crossed paths “for the first and last time” at a 1998 Workers’ Day rally when Mr Tsvangirai was secretary-general of Zimbabwe’s trade union federation.

Mr Tsvangirai became leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party in 1999.

Mugabe, 84, has been in power since his country won independence in 1980. For years, he was revered for leading the seven-year bush war to oust the white-minority government ruling the former British colony.

But in recent years, government policies have plunged the one-time regional breadbasket into an economic freefall.

Zimbabwe’s central bank on Monday issued a new 100 billion-dollar note in a vain attempt to keep up with shortages of cash and the world’s worst inflation running officially at 2.2 million per cent.

Frustrated by the empty shelves, sky-high inflation and a lack of work, Zimbabweans elected the most opposition members to parliament in March since Mugabe took power.

The European Union is expected tomorrow to widen sanctions targeted at Mugabe and his cronies, including tightening a travel ban.

The opposition has said it is open to a “government of national healing” but only one with moderate ruling party members, not Mugabe.