Preliminary Power-Sharing Pact Eludes Zimbabwe Ruling Party, Opposition
Some say that by releasing MDC activists, the government is responding to pressure to demonstrate good faith in the talks.
Preliminary talks on power sharing between Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement forDemocratic Change continued Wednesday as negotiators workedon a draft memorandum of understanding setting the ground rules for talks onestablishing either a government of national unity or a transitional authority. State media had raised expectations that such a memorandum would be signed Wednesday, but reports said the MDC was digging in its heels on its key conditions for an accord. Sources in Harare and Pretoria informed on the talks said the main sticking point was the continuation of the political violence that surged after the March 29 general and presidential elections and continued through the widely condemned June 27 presidential run-off election in which President Robert Mugabe, the only participating candidate, claimed victory. The MDC has insisted the violence must stop before serious talks can begin. The opposition formation headed by Morgan Tsvangirai said some 1,500 of members are in detention around the country and 20 of its elected membersof parliament are in detention or in hiding for fear of state persecution. ZANU-PFis demanding that the MDC agree to ask the Western powers to lift economic andtravel sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and other members of his innercircle, and has also set conditions regarding land reform. Anotheroutstanding issue is whether South African president Thabo Mbeki will continueas sole mediator in the talks, or whether mediation will be expanded to include an African Union envoy as Tsvangirai has demanded and others have urged. Pretoria andZANU-PF say there is no authority for such an expansion, insisting that the African Unionand the Southern African Development Community have expressed full confidence inMr. Mbeki's mediation. Though political violence continues in some parts of Zimbabwe, courts in a numberof towns have been releasing opposition members held under charges of inciting orcommitting political violence. In Bindura, capital of Mashonaland Central province, the magistrate’s court granted release on bail to 50 MDCactivists held since shortly after the March round of elections. Another court in Gwanda, Matabeleland Southprovince, released 25 others MDC members. On Monday a court in Harare released 14 oppositionsupporters charged with political violence saying the state should summons them at a later date if it wishes to bring them to trial. Oppositionnegotiators in the crisis talks have set as one of theirconditions the release of all political prisoners in addition to the cessationof political violence. The government has not acknowledged that it is holdingpolitical prisoners - but the pattern of releases suggests authorities want toestablishing conditions conducive to progress in the talks. But MDCofficials point out that parliamentarian-elect Pearson Mbalekwa of Zvishavane-Ngeziconstituency in Midlands province, and 15 other MDC activists, are still held in Hwange prison. A former ZANU-PF parliamentarian and CentralIntelligence Organization operative, Mbalekwa broke with the government in 2005 over the forced eviction and demolition campaign that it named OperationMurambatsvina, Shona for "Drive Out the Trash." Sources said Mbalekwa spent 16 days without bathing before being transferred to the Hwange prison.