Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Calls For Talks

In A Sign Of Disapproval, Britain Strips President Mugabe Of His Honorary Knighthood

(CBS/ AP)  Zimbabwe's opposition leader emerged briefly from his refuge at the Dutch Embassy on Wednesday to call on African leaders to guide negotiations to end the crisis in his country, saying a presidential runoff later this week was no solution.

Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from Friday's runoff, also said Zimbabwe needs U.N. peacekeepers to help prepare the way for new elections.

Tsvangirai returned to the Dutch Embassy in Harare following a news conference, the Netherlands Foreign Ministry said, a measure of continuing tensions in the southern African country.

The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change opposition party said the goal of the talks he was proposing would be to form a coalition transitional authority in Zimbabwe.

He also said discussions could not begin until there was an end to attacks on his supporters, blamed on President Robert Mugabe's government. Tsvangirai also wants a release of "political prisoners," including the MDC's No. 2 official Tendai Biti, who has been jailed since earlier this month on treason charges that can carry the death penalty.

"What is important is that both parties must realize the country is burning and the only way is to sit down and find a way out of it," Tsvangirai told reporters at his home in Harare after leaving the embassy. He looked relaxed, smiling and joking often.

In a highly unusual move meant to show Britain's displeasure over alleged human rights abuses by Mugabe's administration, Queen Elizabeth stripped the Zimbabwean President of his honorary knighthood.

The Queen acted Wednesday on the advice of British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Miliband says Mugabe should have the honour revoked because of widespread violence and intimidation of Zimbabwe's opposition.

Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change opposition party, had fled to the Dutch Embassy on Sunday following the announcement of his withdrawal from the runoff. He sought refuge after getting a tip that soldiers were headed to his home. In the past three months, soldiers and armed gangs have killed dozens of Mugabe's opponents.

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric asked Tsvangirai in a phone interview Tuesday what he would say to his supporters who had seen his candidacy as a real possibility for change.

"My message is very, very simple. We went to an election in March. We had a relatively peaceful election and the people spoke. We won the parliamentary election, we won the presidential election. We want to thank our supporters for that support. What is happening at this runoff election is not an election," Tsvangirai said.

Mugabe, by all indications intent on extending his nearly three-decade rule, has grown only more defiant in the face of growing international pressure.

But Tsvangirai said "the election is not a solution. What is a solution is some sort of transitional process to address the critical issues facing the country.

"We are making proposals Mugabe has to accept."

While Tsvangirai did not spell out how the transitional body would work, he has insisted in the past that he lead, and Mugabe have no role in, any coalition.

Mugabe, though, is refusing to yield power. Tsvangirai's claim to leadership is based on his having come first in a field of four in the first round of presidential voting March 29, though official results said he did not win the 50 percent plus one vote necessary to avoid a runoff.

Tsvangirai's party and its allies also won control of Parliament in the March voting - the first time since independence from Britain in 1980 that Mugabe's ZANU-PF party failed to win a parliamentary majority.

Tsvangirai said he was asking the African Union, whose heads of state hold a regular summit in Egypt next week, to take over mediation, which so far has been in the hands of South African President Thabo Mbeki and a southern African regional group.

Tsvangirai had previously called on Mbeki to step aside, accusing him of bias in Mugabe's favor and saying his "quiet diplomacy" was not working.

Tsvangirai said the AU mediation he was proposing cannot "be a continuation of talks and talks about talks that have been largely fruitless for several years. The time for actions is now. The people and the country can wait no longer. We need to show leadership."

Earlier Wednesday, a commentary by Tsvangirai was published in the British newspaper The Guardian in which he called for U.N. peacekeepers to help prepare the way for new elections. Asked about that in Harare, Tsvangirai said: "What do you do when you don't have guns and the people are being brutalized out there?"

He stressed he was not calling for military intervention.

In The Guardian, Tsvangirai acknowledged calling for international intervention was sensitive, but said it would offer "the best chance the people of Zimbabwe would get to see their views recorded fairly and justly."

"We do not want armed conflict, but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force," he said in The Guardian. "Such a force would be in the role of peacekeepers, not troublemakers. They would separate the people from their oppressors and cast the protective shield around the democratic process for which Zimbabwe yearns."

On Wednesday, officials from Tsvangirai's party said police raided one of their provincial offices. Scores of opposition activists, including high-ranking party members, have been attacked or killed. The MDC's No. 2 official, Biti, has been jailed since earlier this month on treason charges - which can carry the death penalty.

"I have been arrested; I've been stopped at roadblocks," Tsvangirai told Couric on Tuesday. "I have been treated like a common criminal ... and not as a leading contender in this campaign."

In an interview with Al Jazeera television, Tsvangirai said of the violence: "This is not an election. This is war."

He said he could not have participated in the runoff because of the attacks and restrictions on his campaigning, which included police regularly blocking his attempts to hold rallies or meet even small groups of voters.

Regional heads of state, meanwhile, were meeting in Swaziland in hopes of finding a solution for Zimbabwe.

The Southern African Development Community meeting, though, did not include South African President Mbeki, who was appointed by the bloc more than a year ago to mediate between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Mbeki has refused to publicly denounce Mugabe even as other African leaders step up their criticism, saying confrontation could backfire.

Mbeki's spokesman said late Tuesday that Mbeki was not going to Swaziland because he is not a member of the security committee of the regional bloc, which called the meeting.

South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters that South Africa may yet send an envoy to neighboring Swaziland - the countries' capitals are a few hours drive apart.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who has also been trying to broker an agreement, said Tuesday that Mbeki was trying to persuade Mugabe and Tsvangirai to share power in a transitional government with Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister. Wade was also proposing that Tsvangirai take a position junior to Mugabe's, but not that the coalition be considered merely transitional.

Neither proposal appeared to have been embraced by the rivals.

South African officials have offered no details of Mbeki's mediation agenda. Pahad rejected criticism.

"We can only say mediation fails if Zimbabwe gets totally engulfed in a state of civil war. It's not there yet," Pahad told reporters in South Africa's capital Wednesday. "There are three more days to go (before the vote) and the situation demands we do everything possible to get Zimbabweans to agree on the way forward."

Tsvangirai wrote in The Guardian that Mbeki's approach "sought to massage a defeated dictator rather than show him the door and prod him towards it."

[terrorislami]

typical and predictable,,, anytime you allow communist or fascist nazi terrorislam take over you will have a communist/terrorislam induced famine,,, it is happening in venezuela now,,, they also used to export food,,, now they too have to import food,,,

Zimbabwe suffers from an 80 percent unemployment rate and, according to the International Monetary Fund, an inflation rate exceeding 150,000 percent. Since 1994, the average life expectancy for women in Zimbabwe has fallen from 57 years to 34 years; among men it has dropped from 54 years to 37 years. Some 3,500 Zimbabweans die every week from the combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty, and malnutrition. Half a million Zimbabweans may have died since 2000, while some 3 million fled to South Africa alone.

A country that used to be called the %u201Cjewel%u201D and the %u201Cbreadbasket%u201D of Africa is now an Orwellian nightmare. With the economy in ruins and political freedom eviscerated, Zimbabwe%u2019s state-run media rail against a phantom international conspiracy consisting of Western powers and led by %u201Cliar%u201D George Bush, %u201Cgay%u201D Tony Blair, %u201Cuncle Tom%u201D Colin Powell, and %u201Ca slave to white masters%u201D Condoleezza Rice.
http://www.american.com/archive/2008/may-05-08/botswana-and-zimbabwe-a-tale-of-two-countries

[terrorislami]

World Condemnation Of Zimbabwe MUSLIM THUGS Grows
As Opposition Leader Calls For Peacekeepers, World Leaders Lament "Sham" Elections

Mugabe%u2019s Muslim Thugs Raid Christian Offices

Well, let%u2019s see; Zimbabwe%u2019s Muslim President, Robert Mugabe, has %u201Ccured AIDS,%u201D expelled ALL gayys, and now is cracking down on Christians%u2026 I smell genocide in the air%u2026

Zimbabwe Police Raid Christian Offices
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Police raided Zimbabwe Christian Alliance offices on Monday and arrested five staff members for interrogation, the group reported.
Faced with the very real prospect of losing power, the 84-year-old Mugabe and his party the Zanu-PF party has resorted to violence, including an alleged plan to assassinate Tsvangirai and other key leaders of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Party.

Under Mugabe, Zimbabwe which was once dubbed the breadbasket of southern Africa, has spiraled into an economic meltdown that includes an unemployment rate of about 80 percent and inflation at more than 100,000 percent.
http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/mugabes-muslim-thugs-raid-christian-offices/

[terrorislami]

MUGABE/HUSSEIN IN 08

hmmmmmmm fascist nazi terrorislam backs mugabe/mug-me/bug-me,,, and fascist nazi terrorislam back husein,,,

COULD THIS BE A WARNING???

Islamic terrorists back Mugabe

Zanu-PF plots with a South African outlaw group to bring more terror to the country.

Four members of the military junta now ruling Zimbabwe in Mugabe''''''''''''''''s name are holding secret meetings with representatives of PAGAD, the notorious Islamic terrorist organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa.
http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk/2008/06/islamic-terrori.html

[primilioneah]

So Faith_in_W you are saying the only logic left for Mugabe to understand is to devide the Zimbabwe spoils between Mr. Tsvangarai & Mr. Mugabe? I totally disagree.

Debate and legislation is my prescription, that way it is not going to be about individuals but about the country''s ills.

[bogusbones]

are bush and mugabe related? the way each of them ignores their respective laws and constitution, they must have at least gone to school together or been in the same country club - maybe they owned a baseball team together.

[faith_in_w]

Primilioneah, Mugabe is a savage that cant be dealt with by reason and logic.

[primilioneah]

The only talks that can bring any meaningful solution the countryis problem is for the opposition to take up their seats in parliament and start debating how to help Zimbabweans. The notion of power sharing is nonsense because all it does is to quench the thirst for power of a few individuals while solving nothing else. Kibaki and Odinga anyone?

Take an example from American way of governance Nancy Pelosi for example, is the leader of the opposition in the House of Representative (the equivalent of parliament)while Bush is the leader of government, that is the way I see fit for Zimbabwe. The opposition has control of parliament where Mr. Tsvangarai should take up the position as leader of the opposition. That is the position from where he should challenge Mr. Mugabe''s government on issues that affect the country not from Cairo nor wherever else, stop thinking about individuals. That is my thought, any challenge?