MDC: Talks have stalled
2008-10-10 15:33
Special Report
Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan Tsvangirai has called for openness in the country’s nascent diamond trade, getting underway after the lifting of a global ban over rights abuses.
A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Harare - Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change on Friday claimed that talks to allocate key cabinet positions have reached deadlock, leaving a power-sharing accord in jeopardy, a spokesperson said.
"The three principals met and there is now a shared consensus among them that there is a deadlock," Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for the MDC told AFP.
"The intervention of the mediator therefore becomes imperative," said Chamisa.
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF was not available to comment.
In September Zimbabwe's political rivals signed a landmark power-sharing deal aimed at ending the country's ruinous political crisis.
Under the deal, 84-year-old Mugabe would retain his position as head of state, after nearly three decades in power, while Tsvangirai took up the new post of prime minister.
Tsvangirai's MDC claims that Mugabe's ruling party wants to retain key posts - believed to be the defence, home affairs, state security and finance ministries - in violation of the pact.
- AFP