ZIMBABWE: Zimbabweans await SADC talks on disputed election with faint hope of resolution

Record ID: 859293

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: Zimbabweans await SADC talks on disputed election with faint hope of resolution
  • Date: 11th April 2008
  • Summary: (BN07) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (APRIL 11, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HARARE STREET
  • Embargoed: 26th April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Zimbabwe
  • City:
  • Country: Zimbabwe
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  • Reuters ID: LVARUFKM1F81MAA8CP7I3MSBV3X
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  • Story Text: Pressure mounted on Friday (April 11) ahead of a regional summit on Zimbabwe for President Robert Mugabe to release results from an election almost two weeks ago which the opposition says ended his 28-year rule.
    Leaders from the 14-nation SADC (Southern African Development Community) will meet in Lusaka on Saturday (April 12) amid increasing concern and impatience over the long delay.
    Human rights organisations and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change say Mugabe has unleashed a campaign of systematic violence in response to his biggest defeat.
    Mugabe's ZANU-PF party lost control of parliament for the first time and the MDC says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai also won a parallel presidential vote, whose results have not been announced.
    An opposition source said Tsvangirai met President Thabo Mbeki of Zimbabwe's powerful neighbour South Africa on Thursday (April 10) to discuss the crisis. No details were revealed.
    Tsvangirai earlier met ruling African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma, who rivals Mbeki as South Africa's most powerful man.
    Zuma, abandoning some of Mbeki's trademark "quiet diplomacy"
    called for the results to be released.
    "We urge all parties to respect the will of the people, regardless of the outcome," Zuma said in a speech on Thursday.
    Zimabweans, out on the streets of Harare early on Friday, were mixed about the prospects of the talks.
    One Harare resident said he was hopeful the SADC would help resolve the disputed election: "I think this is the right platform since our president respects SADC, we hope SADC will be stiff on Zimbabwe, and the result must come immediately."
    But another was more concerned about feeding his family and was pessimistic about the outcome of the regional summit.
    "How can they have talks, if they wanted to unite they could have done it way back, all I need to know is how will my family survive, talks don't help when we dying of hunger," he said.
    Prospects of any result from the SADC summit are unclear. Critics say the body is a toothless talking shop, too in awe of liberation hero Mugabe to take firm action.
    But some Zimabweans, desperate to end the crisis in their country, think the regional summit could work.
    "The Zambian issue might be successful, African countries are keen to assist, we hope things will improve in our country," said another Harare local.
    Mbeki, much criticised at home for not taking a stronger line, led failed SADC mediation last year. The crisis has flooded his country with Zimbabwean immigrants, raising xenophobic hostility towards them in South Africa.
    But neither Mugabe, known for his uncompromising style, nor the electoral authorities seem ready to buckle. The electoral commission indicated late on Thursday that the results would have to await the outcome of an opposition legal case. A High Court judge has promised a verdict by Monday on an MDC application to force release of the result. Tsvangirai has accused Mugabe of a de facto coup to overturn the election result and called on African nations and Western powers to force him to step down, ending his uninterrupted rule since independence from Britain in 1980.
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