allAfrica.com: Tanzania: Revealed - Mwafaka Pact Was Not Sealed (Page 1 of 2)

Chama Cha Mapinduzi and Civic United Front did not reach any binding agreement during the 14 months of the Zanzibar Mwafaka negotiations, new details reveal.

In negotiations characterised by mutual mistrust and intrigue, both CCM and CUF do not appear to have ceded any ground despite the numerous closed-door meetings, whose minutes the top negotiators often signed.

Contrary to the reported sealing of the deal between the ruling party and the Opposition, which caused some excitement in Zanzibar and the Mainland at the prospect of a peaceful settlement of the political impasse several months ago, the official record of the talks in the much awaited peace deal tells a different story.

And addressing a press conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday, CUF Secretary-General Seif Shariff Hamad urged President Jakaya Kikwete to help save the talks from collapse, saying only he could break the deadlock.

He said that just the way he facilitated negotiations between Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and ODM's Raila Odinga, now the Prime Minister, to find a solution to the Kenyan political crisis, Mr Kikwete should use the same wisdom and skills to bring together Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume and himself to solve the political crisis.

"The President should understand that charity begins at home. We see him throwing in his weight to solve other countries' problems as he has done in DR Congo, Comoros, Kenya and now Zimbabwe. We want him to do the same here at home," said Mr Hamad.

According to the minutes of the CCM-CUF talks, which were made public at the press conference, the two rival groups left their last meeting on January 21, as sharply divided as they remain today. They did not even append their signatures to the minutes of that last session.

A 200-page volume of the minutes and letters on the Mwafaka talks confirm that by the time CCM held its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Mwalimu Julius Nyerere home village of Butiama, insiders were privy to the failed negotiations.

CUF's Secretary-General Hamad, though aware of the stalemate, soon after announced at a public rally in Zanzibar a reported power sharing deal. He claimed that according to the pact, CCM would retain the presidency, while CUF would take the office of Chief Minister in a coalition government. His announcement was immediately denied by CCM, revealing the naked intrigue, backstabbing and lies that have characterised the Mwafaka talks right from the beginning.

The minutes and letters were produced in response to CCM's statement issued on Sunday, in which the ruling party accused the former of telling lies on their talks.

However, a perusal of the documents revealed that the talks were as good as dead by the time the representatives of both parties left this last meeting. This was the 21st session held to hammer out an agreement on how best to end the Zanzibar political crisis.

The unsigned minutes of the January 21 meeting revealed the bitter division that existed between representatives of the two parties even as they concluded their sessions.

Part of the minutes read: "During the meeting members noted that arguments raised by either side were non-starters." Both representatives, it has emerged stuck to their party positions, presented in the past sessions and could not budge an inch.

The parting without any binding agreement, therefore, reversed the spirit and undermined the authenticity of anything the parties had agreed on during previous sessions.

The sticking points revolved around the formation of a government of national unity that would have seen several CUF politicians incorporated in President Karume's government.

The rival parties could also not agree on when to set up the government of national unity, with the ruling party holding to the right to rule until 2010, as opposed to CUF's demand for a role in government at the end of the talks.

According to the thick document containing the minutes, the two parties never reached a consensus on the formation of the government of the national unity.

Instead, what was recorded was a set of proposals on various aspects, including the formation of government of the national unity. However, records explicitly show that CCM's negotiating team had no final decision on whatever was being discussed.

Mr Hamad, who released the document, was giving his party's response to CCM's allegation that it gave misleading information to the public about what was agreed during the talks. He described the accusations as a pack of lies.

According to the minutes of the meeting held on January 3-4 and chaired by Mr Hamad Rashid Mohammed, the CUF team proposed that in order to build confidence on each side, Zanzibar President Karume should from the government of the national unity involving CUF immediately after the accord was signed.

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