Morgan Tsvangirai

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Turn screw on Mugabe, US urges

The US yesterday called on southern African governments to force President Robert Mugabe from power, saying it had dropped support for the troubled agreement under which he was supposed to share power with his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for Africa, who has been touring the region to press its leaders to take a stronger stand against Mugabe, said in Pretoria that mediation efforts by the former South African president Thabo Mbeki had failed. "We think the facilitation is over. It led to a power-sharing agreement that is flawed," she said. "We think [Mugabe] has reneged on the principle of power sharing."Frazer said Mugabe's attempts to blame the west for the cholera epidemic that had claimed more than 1,000 lives in Zimbabwe was evidence that he was "a man who's lost it, who's losing his mind, who's out of touch with reality".Under the agreement signed three months ago, Mugabe was to cede a considerable amount of his power to Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, who was to be prime minister. But implementation stalled because Mugabe insisted on controlling the most powerful cabinet posts, including security and finance. Frazer said Washington had been sceptical from the beginning about the power-sharing agreement but had bowed to South African pressure to give it a chance. "Let's acknowledge now that the power-sharing agreement hasn't worked," she said.It was now time for the region's leaders to step in and tell Mugabe to go. "It is as easy as them coming together and saying to Mugabe: 'It's over'. He won't then have the cover of saying it is the west when his brothers say 'you are no longer our comrade'," she said. Frazer said other governments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) accepted that Mugabe was no longer a legitimate leader but were reluctant to take a firmer stand against him because it would lead to the total collapse of Zimbabwe, with serious consequences for its neighbours. "We think the country is already in collapse. [SADC leaders] were hesitant to go against Mugabe because they did not want to see the whole thing fall apart, but it has fallen apart," said Frazer. "SADC is losing more of its credibility the longer this situation continues."ZimbabweUS foreign policyCholeraUnited Statesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Mugabe defiant as Brown steps up pressure on African leaders to move against him

Robert Mugabe told his ruling Zanu-PF party yesterday that his country was facing a war with Britain but he would never surrender, and "Zimbabwe is mine".The Zimbabwe president's defiant comments came amid escalating pressure from London on Zimbabwe's neighbours to press Mugabe from office. Gordon Brown urged southern African leaders yesterday to distance themselves from Mugabe and described the situation in Zimbabwe as a tragedy."I will never, never, never, never surrender. Zimbabwe is mine," Mugabe told the party's annual conference. "I won't be intimidated. Even if I am threatened with beheading, I believe this and nothing will ever move me from it: Zimbabwe belongs to us, not the British." Brown called on African leaders to "make sure that it is absolutely clear to the people of Zimbabwe that we support those who are the democratically elected politicians".Hours earlier the state-run Herald newspaper reported Mugabe taunting other African leaders, saying they were under American pressure to force him from power but they lacked the courage to do it. "How could African leaders ever topple Robert Mugabe, organise an army to come? It is not easy," he told Zanu-PF's central committee. "I do not know of any African country that is brave enough to do that." Mugabe also sought to portray himself as seeking a political settlement, saying he had written to the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, inviting him to become prime minister in a power-sharing government. But Tsvangirai threatened to quit power-sharing negotiations yesterday unless the authorities produce dozens of opposition activists who have been abducted and disappeared in recent weeks in what appears to be a renewed campaign of intimidation by Mugabe. Tsvangirai also called for fresh elections if a coalition government was not put in place soon. The missing include Jestina Mukoko, one of Zimbabwe's most prominent human rights activists, who was snatched from her home at night two weeks ago, as well as officials and activists from MDC. Tsvangirai accuses Zanu-PF and the security forces of illegal abductions."In the past two months more than 42 members of the MDC and civil society have been abducted and their whereabouts are still unknown," said Tsvangirai. "The regime is conducting a ... targeted national terror campaign to undermine the MDC's support within Zimbabwe and the work of pro-democracy and human rights organisations. He said that the situation could no longer continue. "The MDC can no longer sit at the same negotiating table with a party that is abducting our members, and other innocent civilians, and refusing to produce any of them before a court of law. Therefore, if these abductions do not cease immediately, and if all the abductees are not released or charged in a court of law by 1 January 2009, I will be asking the MDC's national council to pass a resolution to suspend all negotiations and contact with Zanu-PF."Mukoko's disappearance has caused particular disquiet in Zimbabwe. The 51-year-old head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project was taken at 5am by men in plainclothes who would not give her time to dress. Two children were left in the house. Mukoko built a reputation for being thorough in her reports detailing the actions and impact of Mugabe's regime, from its use of violence to terrorise voters to the impact of spreading starvation. The high court has ordered the police to find Mukoko but no action has been taken. Tsvangirai, who is in semi-exile in Botswana after the Zimbabwean government refused him a travel document, remains gloomy about the prospects of implementing a power-sharing agreement with Mugabe agreed three months ago. It stalled after the president insisted that Zanu-PF control all the most important cabinet posts, including security and finance. "We are saddened by the fact that he is still trying to stay in power at all costs and reduce MDC to a junior partner in the new government ... the Mugabe regime has wilfully and repeatedly broken the letter and the spirit of this agreement," said Tsvangirai."The people of Zimbabwe cannot be expected to continue living under such appalling conditions indefinitely. Therefore, this negotiation process must now be confined to a specific timeframe in which all the outstanding issues are addressed ... if this cannot be achieved then an internationally supervised presidential election must be conducted in an environment that is conducive to a free and fair poll."Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of killing Zimbabweans through neglect and incompetence in order to hang on to power. "The situation in Zimbabwe, particularly from the humanitarian perspective, is now worse than at any time in our country's history," he said. "Cholera is now rife throughout the country, starvation stalks almost every Zimbabwean family and education and healthcare now exist only for the elite."The UN said yesterday that the death toll from the cholera outbreak had risen to 1,123 out of nearly 21,000 reported cases. Some doctors say the real toll is probably much higher. The UN says it expects to have to feed about 5 million people, nearly half the population, because of the collapse of agriculture in Zimbabwe.The economic implosion continued as the central bank issued a 10bn Zimbabwe dollar note today worth about £13. Its value is likely to be wiped out within days. Two weeks ago the bank released a Z$100m note that was worth about £33 the night before it hit the streets but £5 a day later.The government has not released inflation figures since July when it was officially put at 231m%. Economists say inflation at the end of last month was running at about 40 sextillion%.ZimbabweHuman rightsForeign policyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Mugabe asks Tsvangirai to take up PM post

BINDURA, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe announced on Friday he had invited rival Morgan Tsvangirai to be sworn-in as prime minister in a shared government, but expressed doubt whether he would accept.

Cholera crisis is over, says Mugabe, as disaster area declared in South Africa's border region

Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, declared his country's killer cholera outbreak under control yesterday, even as neighbouring South Africa designated one of its northern regions a disaster area due to the number of people crossing the border to seek treatment. Nearly 800 Zimbabweans have died since August from cholera, which has spread rapidly and with unusually high fatality rates due to the country's crumbling water and health infrastructure. "I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others, and the WHO [World Health Organisation], and they have now arrested cholera," Mugabe said in a televised speech yesterday. But the claim was met with immediate scepticism by international agencies. The WHO said on Tuesday that the number of reported cholera cases, currently 16,403, could rise to 60,000 in a worst-case scenario. Responding to Mugabe's comments, a spokeswoman for the UN Humanitarian Affairs office said "the figures speak for themselves" and that she hoped that a joint UN and government effort "will contribute to halting the effort". Save the Children said that the cholera crisis "was growing, not diminishing", while France condemned a decision by Zimbabwe to refuse visas to a team of specialists on standby to assist with the outbreak. "Contrary to what Mr Mugabe says, the cholera epidemic is not under control," said Frédéric Desagneaux, a spokesman for the French foreign ministry. "France strongly regrets this decision and calls on Zimbabwe's authorities to allow aid to reach the population." Across the border in South Africa yesterday, the government declared the Vhembe district a disaster area due to the number of Zimbabwean patients streaming south over the Limpopo river at Beitbridge. The lack of clean water and basic medicines in Zimbabwe have caused a fatality rate from cholera of nearly 5%, compared with 1% normally expected in emergency situations.More than 660 people, mostly Zimbabweans, have been treated for cholera in South Africa in recent weeks. Eight people have died. A Limpopo provincial spokesman, Mogale Nchabeleng, said the situation was under control but that the disaster declaration would help cut bureaucracy and free national funds to boost medical assistance. Zimbabwe has experienced political paralysis since an election in March was won by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who then pulled out of a run-off against Mugabe due to state-sponsored violence. A subsequent power-sharing agreement between the two men has stalled over Mugabe's apparent refusal to cede control of some of the powerful ministerial posts. The health crisis, which comes on top of mass unemployment and hunger, hyperinflation that sees prices change several times a day, and the collapse of the education system, has led to renewed calls from western leaders for a change of leadership. Speaking in Washington yesterday, James McGee, the US ambassador to Harare, said: "One man and his cronies, Robert Mugabe, are holding [this] country hostage, and Zimbabwe is rapidly deteriorating into failed state status."But Mugabe claimed that the US, Britain and France were using the cholera epidemic as a basis to launch "military intervention"."Now that there is no cholera, there is no cause for war anymore," he said in his speech yesterday.Condemnation of Mugabe's regime has been muted from within Africa, with only Kenya's prime minister, Raila Odinga, calling for his forcible removal - a position not officially endorsed by the Kenyan government. But the concern among Zimbabwe's neighbours about the effects of the country's social and economic unravelling is growing daily. Bostwana's foreign minister, Phandu Skelemani, said yesterday that while the border with Zimbabwe should remain open, he supported other ways of marginalising Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party."If you switch off petrol, I think that Zanu-PF will have to go. If that step is agreed and you then simultaneously airlift critical supplies like food and essential supplies to prevent Zimbabweans from starving to death, I think it will have the desired effect," he told the Associated Press.In South Africa the ruling African National Congress said that it believed Mugabe could still be talked into stepping down. Gwede Mantashe, the party's secretary general, said that neither an invasion nor sanctions were options in ousting the 84-year-old leader, who has held power since 1980. "What we will do to make Mugabe retire? We will persuade him," he said.ZimbabweCholeraSouth AfricaInternational aid and developmentguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Cholera Zimbabwe's 'worst crisis'

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says the cholera outbreak is now his country's biggest threat.

Zimbabwe on brink of collapse as outbreak of cholera spreads

The situation in Zimbabwe may soon "implode" as a cholera outbreak spreads and basic services collapse, South African leaders and a group of international statesmen warned yesterday.On the eve of talks in South Africa between Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and opposition rivals, South African leaders sharply upgraded their crisis assessment and warned of Zimbabwe's imminent collapse if urgent action was not taken.About 6,000 people have contracted cholera in recent weeks, according to the UN, and almost 300 have died. A chronic shortage of medicine has sent hundreds of people south to seek treatment in South Africa. "Unless this root cause of the political absence of a legitimate government is solved, the situation will get worse and may implode and collapse ... It is now an urgent matter, because people are dying," said South Africa's caretaker president, Kgalema Motlanthe.Three eminent statesmen representing a group called the Elders, which was established last year to tackle international issues, said Zimbabwe was in a far worse position than previously thought.The team - the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, former US president Jimmy Carter and Graça Machel, the rights activist and wife of Nelson Mandela - had planned to visit Zimbabwe last weekend to assess the humanitarian situation but were refused visas by the government. Instead they remained in South Africa talking to aid groups, refugees and civil society leaders.Carter told reporters yesterday: "The entire basic structure ... is broken down. These are all indications that the crisis in Zimbabwe is much greater, much worse than we ever could have imagined."The country has been locked in political stalemate since presidential elections in March when Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, defeated Mugabe in the first round of voting. Tsvangirai pulled out of the June run-off however due to violence and intimidation of his supporters, allowing Mugabe to claim victory. Attempts to agree a power sharing arrangement have foundered as Mugabe insisted on keeping most of the ministries for his Zanu-PF party. In the meantime, the economy has disintegrated and the health system is close to breakdown. Four big hospitals, including two in Harare, have effectively closed their doors to new patients owing to a shortage of basic supplies and running water, the Elders said. Even women needing caesarean sections are being turned away.Machel said it was clear that the state could no longer offer basic services and was failing its people. "We have a sense that either the leadership doesn't have a clear picture of how deep the suffering is of their own people, or they don't care," she said.The African National Congress leader, Jacob Zuma, who is likely to become South Africa's president next year, expressed concern about the cholera outbreak and said the ANC would send a delegation to Zimbabwe to assess the situation. "We are dealing with a situation that is affecting the lives of people," he said.South Africa has already threatened to withhold £18m in food aid to Zimbabwe unless a political solution is found. Zuma and Motlanthe tried to increase the pressure on Mugabe and Tsvangirai to implement a power-sharing agreement and address the growing humanitarian crisis. But unless Mugabe makes concessions, Tsvangirai will be left in a difficult position, forced to choose between accepting a weak position in government and holding out, leaving the country's dire socioeconomic situation to worsen. Annan said that leaders of the Southern African Development Community had not yet put enough pressure on Zimbabwe to find a political solution. "I think it is clear that SADC should have done more," he said after meeting Zuma and Motlanthe yesterday.The Elders said they were shocked by the stories they had heard coming out of Zimbabwe. "It is not just the extent of Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis, but the speed of deterioration in the past few weeks that is most worrying," said Annan. "The scale, depth and urgency of the situation are under-reported."The cholera epidemic has been caused by the collapse in the water and sanitation infrastructure. Cases have been reported in nine of the country's 10 provinces. Fatality rates are well above the international emergency rate of 1% due to a lack of drugs and medical assistance.Zimbabweguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai hold new Zimbabwe power-sharing talks

Summit organised by Southern Africa Development Community aims to end deadlock over allocation of cabinet posts

Zimbabwe rivals in crunch talks

Regional leaders meet to try to seal a power-sharing deal between Zimbabwe's President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe unity cabinet talks fail

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai fail to agree on a unity cabinet.