Zimbawe Opposition Spurns Offers of Party Talks

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Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s deputy opposition leader rejected an offer of talks from President Mugabe yesterday, saying the regime was so divided it was impossible to reach agreement.

Mr. Mugabe is universally expected to claim victory after today’s election. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change will then come under heavy pressure to negotiate with the ruling Zanu-PF party.

Speaking at a rally, Mr. Mugabe said: “We won’t be arrogant, we will be magnanimous and say ‘let’s sit down and talk,’ and talk we shall. We remain open to discussion with the MDC.”

But the MDC’s secretary-general and the party’s leading negotiator in all previous talks, Tendai Biti, told the Daily Telegraph: “The arteries of negotiation are blocked. You can’t accept a situation where Mugabe says ‘I’m now negotiating from a position of strength’ and oblivious to the result of March 29.” This was the election’s first round, which was won by the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Hours after being released from prison on bail, Mr. Biti added that today’s election would be “a farce.” “Everyone is in hiding, everyone is in fear. There’s no sense of logic to the violence, it’s a state of senselessness. I’m aware that they are telling villagers that after the election they will launch ‘Operation Did You Vote?.’ There will be a decent turnout in some places because of the threat. Whatever happens it’s a sick joke.”

Mr. Biti was detained for 14 days and charged with treason. He endured 14 hours of interrogation by police officers and the Central Intelligence Organization. These sessions showed deep divisions within the regime. Mr. Biti’s interrogators wanted to know about his talks in South Africa with two members of Mr. Mugabe’s cabinet: the justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, and the labor minister, Nicholas Goche.

“It was obvious they were being used by one faction of Zanu-PF. One part is negotiating, the other doesn’t know what is happening,” Mr Biti said. “It was quite clear from some of the questions that they asked about particular aspects of the SADC [Southern African Development Community] negotiations that they felt Chinamasa and Goche had been outplayed at the SADC table.”


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