Mugabe: Accept me or no talks
2008-07-04 15:37
Harare - President Robert Mugabe ruled out the prospect of talks with his opponents on ending Zimbabwe's political crisis on Friday unless they acknowledged his victory in a one-man election.
Speaking to thousands of supporters after flying home from an African Union summit, Mugabe said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai should not "delude" himself into thinking the result of the June 27 poll could be expunged from the record books and should renounce his claims to the presidency.
"I am the president of the Republic of Zimbabwe and that is the reality," he said at Harare airport where at least 4 000 supporters had gathered to welcome him back from the AU summit in Egypt.
Mugabe added: "Everybody has to accept that if they want to dialogue. If they agree on that, and we are satisfied, then we shall go into dialogue and listen to them by way of ideas (but) those votes can never be thrown away."
Mwanawasa fighting for his life
The run-off election, boycotted by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai after deadly attacks on his supporters, was widely denounced as a sham by Western governments.
However 84-year-old Mugabe, the continent's oldest leader, escaped serious censure from his peers at this week's summit, which instead ended with relatively bland calls for the formation of a national unity government.
Although Botswana reiterated a call on Friday for the Mugabe regime to be suspended from the AU and the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC), the chances of the region taking a hard line were receding with his biggest critic, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, fighting for his life.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, SADC's chief mediator on the crisis, had been fiercely criticised by the MDC over his consistent refusal to publicly criticise his Zimbabwean counterpart.
MDC supporters attacked
Mugabe said "we are happy that Mbeki continues to be the facilitator", adding "he has done nothing wrong".
His comments further punctured hopes of a breakthrough between Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the MDC, which had proclaimed Tsvangirai as the rightful president after he won the first round of the presidential election in March.
Tsvangirai pulled out of the run-off after the killing of nearly 90 of his supporters in attacks he blamed on pro-Mugabe militias and after he was detained by police on five occasions while campaigning.
Following the rubberstamping of Mugabe's victory, Tsvangirai made clear that he would not recognise his old rival as the rightful head of state and also dismissed the AU's calls for a national union government as such an arrangement would not reflect the will of the people.
Tsvangirai instead said he wanted talks about setting up a transitional authority, which would draw up a new constitution that would lead to a fresh bout of elections.
His stance received backing on Friday from the European Union, which called for new polls to be staged as soon as possible.