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Posted on 01/12/2003 12:01:09 PM PST by HAL9000
HARARE, Zimbabwe, Jan 12, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- President Robert Mugabe would resign and a new power-sharing government would be formed under a deal that has been discussed by Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition officials, mediators said Sunday.The offer was made by two of the ruling party's most powerful figures - Parliament speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa and armed forces chief of staff Gen. Vitalis Zvinavashe - and was an effort to help Zimbabwe regain international legitimacy and renewed aid and investment during a period of transitional rule, the mediators said.
The mediators, fearing allegations of treason if the deal collapses, said assurances Mugabe would step down were conveyed to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
A power-sharing government would try to end an economic meltdown that has sent inflation soaring, caused a massive fuel shortage and left at least half Zimbabwe's population on the verge of starvation.
Mugabe, who led the nation to independence in 1980, won a new six-year term in elections last March that independent observers said were deeply flawed. The MDC, along with Britain, the European Union and the United States, have refused to accept results, saying voting was rigged and influenced by violence and intimidation.
The early retirement of Mugabe, once seen as a towering African statesman, has long seemed inconceivable.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai confirmed receiving the offer and, in a departure from recent opposition policy, told the AP his party's lawmakers were ready to vote with the ruling party for a constitutional amendment allowing the creation of a caretaker government once Mugabe stepped down.
Any agreement would include guarantees of immunity for Mugabe, 78, from prosecution over alleged misrule and human rights violations during his 23 years in power, Tsvangirai said.
Ruling party officials were unavailable for comment Sunday.
There has been no word on an offer from Mugabe himself, who was scheduled to head home from a two-week vacation that included a trip to Thailand. He is expected to return to his office Monday.
His absence as the nation faced food and gasoline shortages has fanned harsh criticism at home.
The MDC has repeatedly called for Mugabe to go on trial.
"Regrettably, we may have said that. It may have been a position. Circumstances dictate behavior. The country is on its knees. If people are asked to make that sacrifice of giving him immunity, and to say, 'Let's forget the past and move forward,' let it be. We have more to lose by getting bogged down until the country collapses and more to gain by saying this is a hurdle we have overcome," Tsvangirai said.
Over the past three years, Mugabe's government has seized most of the nation's thousands of white-owned commercial farms, calling it a justified struggle by landless blacks to correct colonial era injustices that left 4,000 whites with one-third of the nation's farm land.
Farming disruptions and poor rains have led to the food crisis and coupled with political chaos and the government's increasing isolation, have led to acute shortages of hard currency and essential imports.
"There is wide consensus Mugabe is the problem and national and party dialogue must begin. Colleagues have shifted the blame onto him and he must accept the consequences," said one mediator who spoke on condition on anonymity.
Under the constitution, new elections must be held within 90 days of the president leaving office.
Tsvangirai said his party was prepared to support a parliamentary vote for a constitutional amendment "to vary that period" until conditions for fresh elections were suitable.
"If they are talking of two years or 18 months, that now is subject to specific negotiations," he said.
The MDC had previously demanded independently supervised elections after six months of any transitional rule.
Tsvangirai said he had not received "categoric assurances" from the full ruling party leadership that Mugabe would resign.
"I can only go as far as to say as far as Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe were concerned, it's part of the deal," he said.
"It is obvious Mugabe has become a liability to his party and the nation as a whole," Tsvangirai said.
The MDC would not insist Mugabe go into exile, he said.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved
So, when it is all said and done, after all of the murders and beatings and destruction and occupation and total devastation of the entire economy and any sembelance of rule of law, the only thing that matters to Mr. Mugabe is.....Mr. Mugabe.
How bloody typical. How bloody revolting.
And what about the lives that have been destroyed by Mr. Mugabe's regime? How about the farms that have been stolen? Will they be returned and their former owners compensated for their losses? Of course not.
Mugabe is out of the country. It may be that this will be a fait accompli upon his return.
Mugabe may have immunity from Zimbabweans, but he could be sued in US courts for human rights abuses.
In the face of starvation, Tsvangirai is right in making a deal, but only if there are agreements to restore the rule of law.
High court judges appropriating farms (a recent thread on FR) does not bode well for the future.
The ZANU-PF elite must have their power broken. I do not know if this is possible.
What a great step this would be, if it came true!
Or perhaps the world socialists dream court, The World Court could take up this issue. Nah
Mugabe could not have sustained a tyranny alone. That requires co-operation by the police and the courts looking away as "war veterans" and Green Bombers commit atrocities in public and highly placed Zanu PF cadre loot the country.
It also takes a willingness on their part to surrender power and influence and assurances of amnesty to them.
It will also take some guarantees to insure that what happened to Zapu PF does not happen to the MDC.
Otherwise, Mugabe goes into retitement in some friendly African or Asian country while his sherpas use the force controlled by them to continue themselves in power and the MDC gets co-opted and eventually dismantled and its cadre exiled or killed.
I know it's a pipe dream, but what the heck. I didn't take up that much band width.
This devil has reigned over death and destruction and now wants to retire to his farms while his party continues to rule. What do they forfeit in this "deal?" I don't see the bargaining. They must be feeling the heat. Is the deal, they'll share the little food they have with the opposition? That they'll stop terrorizing the oppostion? What?
As you know, I have been, and remain, unalterably opposed to a "government of national unity".
That only benefits the party that has the most power and the other party wuickly gets sidelined.
Witness Joshua Nkomo and his party.
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