Thursday, July 3, 2008
Robert Mugabe (left) and Morgan Tsvangirai.
Despite their apparently intractable differences after a bitter and bloody three-month election process whose outcome has not been recognized by most of the world, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and the beleaguered opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) appear to be hinting that some form of power-sharing is inevitable. Mugabe remains defiant in the face of near-universal condemnation of his regime's thuggish election tactics, and this week he stormed angrily out of an African Union summit that urged him to create a government of national unity. Still, Mugabe is expressing a willingness to negotiate and consider a unity government, perhaps mindful of the need to reverse his regime's growing isolation. And although MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had warned that there would be no negotiations if Mugabe went ahead with the runoff vote staged last weekend, the opposition may be resigned to the reality that neither side in Zimbabwe's power struggle is capable of eliminating the other.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told TIME on Wednesday that although current conditions in Zimbabwe are not conducive to talks, in the interest of restoring peace to allow for fresh elections, his party will consider resuming dialogue with Mugabe's in the coming weeks. "We now need to explore new ways of making sure we achieve free and fair elections," he told TIME. "This is why we have given the thumbs-up to a negotiated settlement." Zimbabwe's information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu also today made similar noises, telling AFP that the "government is ready for dialogue with whoever." Mugabe had said on the eve of the runoff that he would begin talks with opponents "sooner rather than later"
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