HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe's opposition was Saturday gearing up to ink an agreement that paves the way for fully-fledged talks on the country's crisis after the African Union and UN agreed to help bolster the mediation.
The memorandum of understanding outlining the talks agenda and ground rules, was to have been signed on Wednesday, but opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai backed out as he pushed for others players to be brought into a mediation process, which is led by South African President Thabo Mbeki.
A meeting on Friday between Mbeki, African Union commission chairman Jean Ping and the United Nations' special representative to Zimbabwe, Haile Menkerios, ended with an agreement to create a new body that would provide regular progress updates and allow for greater input in the talks.
"The expansion of the mediation effort is a positive and encouraging development that will embolden the integrity of the process, adds international stamina, stressing the urgent seriousness required to solve this crisis," said Nelson Chamisa, spokesman of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change.
"The enhancement of the credibility of the process, positions the MDC in a ready-to-take-off mode," he told AFP.
Ping meantime travelled to Zimbabwe on Saturday where he met Tsvangirai, according to Chamisa.
"I can confirm that that there has been contact and exchange of views between (MDC) president Tsvangirai and Mr Ping from the AU," Chamisa told AFP, while refusing to elaborate.
It could not be immediately established who else Ping was due to meet in Harare.
The MDC and President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF began preliminary talks last week aimed at establishing a framework for substantive negotiations.
The talks were mediated by Mbeki, who was handed the mediation brief by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) more than a year ago.
The so-called memorandum of understanding for the substantive talks, which could open as early as next week according to the media in neighbouring South Africa, could be signed in coming days.
Tsvangirai was quoted in The Star newspaper as saying that the so-called "reference group", which would monitor the talks, would travel to Harare on Monday.
"I am advised that the reference group with Mbeki is coming to Harare on Monday to sign the memorandum of understanding and we will obviously sign as well.
"It is a positive step and we look forward to finding the solution we were looking for," he added. Zimbabweans had suffered enough and it was time for the crisis to end, Tsvangirai, he told the newspaper.
A spokesman for a breakaway faction of the MDC, which has also been involved in the preliminary talks, said his party had been ready to sign the document since last week.
"As far as we are concerned, we don't have any problem with the MOU (memorandum of understanding) and we have actually been ready to sign it until our colleagues from the MDC-T indicated otherwise," said Edwin Mushoriwa, spokesman of the smaller faction of the MDC.
Zimbabwe's political crisis deepened last month when Mugabe defied international calls to postpone a presidential run-off marred by widespread violence, and was predictably re-elected by a landslide.
The one-man ballot was widely denounced as a sham in the West after Tsvangirai boycotted the run-off over a wave of deadly attacks on his supporters.
Tsvangirai has rejected the African Union's proposal of a national unity government, saying instead he wanted a transitional administration that would pave the way for fresh elections.
The 84-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, has for his part insisted that the MDC has to acknowledge his victory in the run-off if there is to be any kind of power-sharing deal.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
