22 July 2008
Lagos — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the country's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, met for the first time in years yesterday to sign a preliminary agreement laying out terms for negotiations to wrest their land out of political chaos.
The men had not met for a decade, when Tsvangirai was a labour union leader before he emerged as the head of the main opposition group in 1999.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had said during a visit to Britain last week that he did not recognise the election that returned Mugabe as Zimbabwe's president, citing the need to export rule of law to other African countries that are yet to imbibe the culture.
"We sit here in order for us to chart a new way, a new way of political interaction," Mugabe said, striking more measured tones than his frequent firebrand rhetoric.
Tsvangirai said there was "no one with a monopoly on patriotism; there's no one with a claim that he has a monopoly on the will of the people".
He called the agreement "the first tentative step towards searching for a solution for a country that is in crisis."
The ceremony in a Harare hotel was overseen by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who laboured for months as a mediator, defying critics who said his efforts merely gave Mugabe time to outwit his opponents.
Mbeki sat between the two men as they signed, Reuters reported from Harare. A small breakaway faction of the opposition also committed itself to the talks.
While the so-called Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was a modest step in light of Zimbabwe's chaos and collapse, the sight of Mugabe in the same room as Tsvangirai seemed a dramatic departure from their land's more usual images of political bloodletting, electoral rigging and economic ruin.
The agreement "commits the negotiating parties to an intense programme of work to try and finalise negotiations as quickly as possible," Mbeki said, without giving details.
"All parties recognise the urgency," he said.
Sources said agreement committed the negotiators to begin talks within two weeks.
Tsvangirai had grown increasingly hostile to Mbeki's mediation, saying the South African leader was biased in favour of Mugabe.
But the mood shifted last week when Mbeki agreed to a role for the African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN) and a 14-nation grouping of southern African nations.
Those institutions will form a so-called "reference group," overcoming Tsvangirai's objections to Mbeki's role as exclusive mediator on behalf of southern African nations.
The ceremony yesterday offered Mbeki some vindication for his efforts and provided ammunition to justify his resistance to demands by the United States and Britain for punitive sanctions against Mugabe and his aides.
Mbeki flew to Harare yesterday as word emerged of a preliminary agreement setting out the framework for negotiating a substantive agreement.
South African Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, called the occasion a "positive step forward in the ongoing dialogue."
Analysts in Zimbabwe said the toughest issues would not be addressed until full negotiations got under way between deeply opposed and mutually hostile political figures seen by many analysts as unlikely partners in a power-sharing agreement of the kind that emerged earlier this year from Kenya's post-election bloodletting.
Under that power-sharing arrangement, the authorities created a post of prime minister for Raila Odinga, the main challenger to President Mwai Kibaki.
In Zimbabwe, the hostilities run deep and it was not known if mediators would press for a similar arrangement.
Tsvangirai has been pushing for the creation of a transitional authority leading to new elections. South Africa has been urging a government of national unity.
After 28 years in power and showing no readiness to stand down, Mugabe has dismissed Tsvangirai as a puppet of neo-colonial manoeuvres by Britain and the United States. Tsvangirai said Mugabe had stolen Zimbabwe's presidency in fraudulent elections and deployed security forces to mount a bloody campaign of repression.
Mugabe met a smiling Mbeki at Harare airport and the two men drove into the city in the Zimbabwean leader's limousine after embracing and shaking hands.
Zimbabwe has been in political deadlock since presidential elections on March 29, when victory was claimed by Tsvangirai, who, even by the official count, polled more votes than Mugabe.
Mugabe, however, insisted on a run-off vote, which he won as the only candidate in a ballot on June 27. The run-off was widely condemned by western and some African leaders as a sham.
Tsvangirai withdrew a week before the ballot, saying his followers were suffering waves of violence and intimidation. In the days before the run-off, Tsvangirai took refuge in the Dutch Embassy in Harare, saying it was not safe for him to remain at home.
Both men had set out preconditions for yesterday's meeting. Mugabe insisted on being recognised as president, while Tsvangirai wanted guarantees that political violence would end and his jailed supporters would be freed.
In the past, Tsvangirai had insisted that negotiations be based on his March 29 election victory, but Mugabe refused to talk until he felt able to claim legitimacy as president from the June 27 vote.
In the March 29 vote, Mugabe lost control of the lower house of Parliament for the first time since he took office at independence from Britain in 1980.
Tsvangirai had said he wanted legislators to be sworn in, giving him a parliamentary power base.
Progress towards a meeting has been erratic, with Tsvangirai rejecting the idea as recently as last week.
Last weekend, however, the UN Special Representative to Zimbabwe, Haile Menkerios, expressed confidence that a preliminary deal would be signed.
The events in Zimbabwe have divided Africa, with some leaders prepared to continue supporting Mugabe and others insisting that he had clung to power illegitimately.
A subsequent push by Britain and the United States at the UN to impose sanctions drew a rare joint veto by Russia and China.
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