Handshake offers a ray of hope for Zimbabwe

BITTER rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe met for the first time in a decade yesterday to sign a memorandum of understanding that provides a framework for negotiations to tackle Zimbabwe's desperate political and economic crises.

Negotiators for the two men will fly to Johannesburg tomorrow to launch the difficult talks on their country's future. The biggest sticking point will be the reluctance of either to accept a position inferior to the other.

Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Mr Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, sat on either side of the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, in the Sheraton Hotel in Harare to sign the five-page agreement. The rivals, who last met in 1998, shook hands afterwards.

Mr Tsvangirai refused to have the ceremony at State House, Mr Mugabe's official residence, as he does not recognise the legitimacy of the Zanu-PF leader's victory in a run-off election in June.

In a short speech, Mr Mugabe said it was absolutely essential to keep European and North American powers, who have imposed travel and personal financial restrictions on him and his main allies, out of the negotiations.

He said the two sides had agreed on the need for the country's constitution to be amended on various points. "We sit here in order for us to chart a new way of political interaction," he said.

Mr Tsvangirai said it was important for both sides to work together to achieve answers to a catastrophic situation in which mothers put children to bed without food, inflation was touching nine million per cent and women's life expectancy was down to 34 years. "We want to make sure that every Zimbabwean feels safe, we want to share a common prosperity for everyone and we want a better Zimbabwe," he said.

The memorandum requires a final settlement to be achieved by the end of the first week of August. However, commentators say this target is impossible, given the hostility between the two sides, the extent of their differences and the scale of Zimbabwe's problems. The document, which will be released publicly, does not answer the central issue of Mr Mugabe's future or go into the details of any power-sharing arrangement.

Mr Mugabe insists he must be recognised as Zimbabwe's president. But the MDC says he cannot be rewarded for his use of extreme violence to ensure he won the run-off unopposed.

The MDC wants some kind of interim "transitional authority" to run the country, while new internationally monitored elections are organised.

George Sibotshiwe, an MDC spokesman, said any progress in the negotiations would be conditional on a complete halt to violence by Mr Mugabe's militias and the release of some 1,500 political prisoners.

While Mr Mbeki chaired yesterday's signing ceremony, the breakthrough became possible only last weekend, after his unsuccessful one-man, eight-year mediation was scrapped and replaced by a four-person mediation team. Mr Tsvangirai has accused Mr Mbeki of bias towards Mr Mugabe, and the MDC leader only agreed to talk to his great rival after representatives of the United Nations, the African Union and the Southern African Development Community joined the arbitration.

TIMELINE

• March 2008 Opposition party MDC wins parliamentary poll. Morgan Tsvangirai wins first round of presidential poll.

• June 2008 Robert Mugabe wins presidential run-off election after Mr Tsvangirai pulls out days before the poll, saying a free and fair election is impossible because of violent intimidation of his supporters. Mr Mugabe is sworn in for sixth term of office. After 28 years in power the 84-year-old declared himself president unopposed for another five years.

• July 2008 Britain and the United States spearhead international campaign aimed at persuading Mr Mugabe to step down. Their efforts to dislodge him suffer a setback when a proposed UN resolution to impose new sanctions on Zimbabwe's leaders is vetoed by Russia and China. The 100-billion-dollar banknote is introduced in response to official year-on-year inflation rate of 2 million per cent.