PROSECUTORS in Zimbabwe have postponed the trial of a top aide to prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai in a bid to defuse a row that has thrown the government into crisis.
Tsvangirai pulled his party members out of the country's Cabinet on Friday and said his Movement for Democratic Change was suspending co-operation with president Robert Mugabe, calling him a "dishonest and unreliable partner".
The move followed
the jailing on Wednesday of MDC treasurer Roy Bennett, a white former MP, on terrorism charges. His lawyers argued they needed more time to prepare a case and prosecutors yesterday said the trial, due to start tomorrow, had been postponed.
Bennett has been charged with possession of arms for purposes of committing terrorism, which carries a possible death penalty.
Welcoming yesterday's decision, he said: "Within the judicial system you have independent judges, who in their own right are independent people with the background and credibility, and they are coming to the fore and standing behind the rule of law."
Bennett, a former commercial farmer, is Tsvangirai's nominee for the post of deputy agriculture minister, but Mugabe has refused to swear him in until he is acquitted.
Tsvangirai said on Friday the MDC would boycott the country's power-sharing government until a political deal was reached, sparking the biggest crisis since the coalition was formed nine months ago.
The boycott was a setback to the country's struggle to emerge from political gridlock, economic collapse and international sanctions.
"Roy Bennett is not being prosecuted, he is being persecuted," Tsvangirai said. "Until confidence has been restored we can't continue to pretend that everything is well."
However, Tsvangirai said his move did not spell the collapse of the government.
US state department spokesman Ian Kelly said Washington understood "the frustration" of Tsvangirai's party, and called on Mugabe to make the power-sharing agreement work.
"He hasn't taken the concrete steps to show a commitment to democratic reform and opening up his political system," Kelly said.
Zimbabwe's neighbours had urged Mugabe, who has held power since independence in 1980, to form the partnership with Tsvangirai, a former union leader. In forming their coalition, they pledged to work together to turn the country around.
The coalition is Mugabe's only hope for taking Zimbabwe out of international isolation, and it has brought Tsvangirai closer to power than any election.
