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Democratic
reforms agreed on in Zimbabwe
Robyn Dixon, The Baltimore Sun
September 19, 2007
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.zimbabwe19sep19,0,2827417.story
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's
ruling party agreed to modest democratic reforms yesterday ahead
of national elections, including slashing the presidential term
by a year, ending presidential appointment of legislators and expanding
the lower house of parliament. The reform package, however, left
intact the sweeping powers wielded by President Robert G. Mugabe,
and failed to address the southern African nation's flawed electoral
rolls, less than six months before national elections are to be
held. Although some analysts hailed the accord between the ruling
Zanu PF party and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change as an important step toward strengthening democracy in Zimbabwe,
others viewed it as a cynical concession by a ruling party that
is confident it can beat a fractured opposition in March elections.
The deal also was seen as a bid by Mugabe's regime to win greater
credibility for its electoral procedures as it seeks a regional
rescue package for its collapsing economy. "It's a very major
development in terms of African solutions for African problems,"
government spokesman George Charamba said in a telephone interview.
He said the reforms answer "all these claims made, especially
by the Western media, that the negotiations between Zanu PF and
the MDC are going nowhere. ... Now that there is this working relationship
between the two parties, it is interesting to see how this whole
argument justifying sanctions will go. I'd really like to see how
they would justify that."
The agreement
came as the International Crisis Group called
on the West to drop travel bans and an asset freeze imposed
on Zimbabwe's elite, and suggested Mugabe and other leaders be offered
immunity from prosecution as a way out of the country's economic
and political crisis. Mugabe and his allies are believed to fear
charges in connection with the massacres of thousands by government
security forces in Matebeleland in the 1980s. A report by the Roman
Catholic Church estimated that about 20,000 were killed. Former
Liberian President Charles Taylor was arrested last year and became
the first former African leader to face an international tribunal
on war-crime charges over his alleged role in Sierra Leone's civil
war. He had been in exile in Nigeria since relinquishing power in
2003. Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since the former British colony,
then known as Rhodesia, won independence in 1980 after a liberation
war that had made him an enduring hero in many parts of Southern
Africa. Human rights abuses and the country's decline from one of
the region's wealthiest nations to one of its poorest since have
damaged his legacy. The International Monetary Fund has predicted
hyperinflation, now more than 7,500 percent annually, could reach
100,000 percent by the end of the year. Jonathon Moyo, a former
Zanu PF Minister who was sacked by Mugabe for alleged disloyalty,
said that while the government appears confident of victory in March,
it is increasingly panicked at economic chaos sparked by its price-control
policies.
"This is an acknowledgment
by the ruling party and by the president that there's a crisis that
needs to be resolved," Moyo said. "There is a crisis which
has reached boiling point and left everyone, the ruling party included,
in uncharted waters, and there is desperate search for a way out.
There are 1,000 miles to walk, and this is the first step in the
first mile." To obtain the reform package, which also included
restrictions on the president's power to draw electoral boundaries,
the opposition agreed to a government plan to let parliament choose
Mugabe's successor upon his retirement or death. Mugabe increasingly
relies on a narrow group of security and military chiefs for backing,
as support in the broader ruling party falters over concerns about
the country's economic chaos. A spokesman for the smaller of the
two MDC factions, Welshman Ncube, said in a telephone interview
that the opposition continued to seek more sweeping constitutional
and electoral change before the March elections. There have been
reports the government is willing to give ground on these issues
as well.
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