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Zim parties stand together
06/08/2008 20:22 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's main opposition party and President Robert Mugabe's party issued a joint communiqué condemning violence on Wednesday, according to an opposition spokesperson.
George Sibotshiwe, a spokesperson for the Movement for Democratic Change, said the communiqué was agreed to as part of a deal that opened the way to power-sharing talks.
Those talks are continuing in an attempt to end a deadly political standoff.
Sibotshiwe did not immediately have details of the statement.
Statements
Attempts to reach officials of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party were not immediately successful, and Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a smaller faction of the MDC, said he was not aware that a statement had been released.
In an agreement signed July 21 providing a framework for the power-sharing talks, both opposition factions and Zanu-PF pledged to issue statements that would condemn "the promotion and use of violence and call for peace in the country".
The negotiations started three days later, briefly broke down and then resumed on Sunday. They have been held at a secret location in South Africa, mediated by a team led by President Thabo Mbeki.
Mbeki's spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said he could not confirm that a statement on violence had been released.
Mugabe is accused of unleashing security forces and party militants on opposition activists after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe and two other candidates in the March presidential elections.
Sham election
Scores of people have been killed and thousands forced from their homes in the violence. There have been reports of opposition retaliatory attacks, but not on the scale of state-sponsored attacks.
Mugabe, 84, and Zanu-PF have led the country since independence in 1984. But in the March elections, Tsvangirai won the most votes and the opposition seized a majority in parliament for the first time since Mugabe took power.
However, election officials said Tsvangirai did not win enough votes for outright victory. He pulled out of a June run-off against Mugabe, citing the violence against his supporters.
Mugabe ran alone and declared himself winner of an election widely discredited as a sham.
- AP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
