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First sign of hope at Zimbabwe summit
Alex Duval Smith, The Observer (UK)
April 13, 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/13/zimbabwe1

In the first sign of a political denouement to the Zimbabwe crisis, southern African leaders were early this morning putting together proposals for a unity government. But it remained unclear whether President Robert Mugabe had been consulted. Fifteen days after the Zimbabwean elections - amid rising tension as the results of the presidential poll remained unpublished - the leaders of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community began talks early this morning with former Zimbabwean finance minister Simba Makoni. The regional leaders are known to favor Makoni, 51, as a successor to 84-year-old Mugabe because he too comes from Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, which has been in power since the end of white rule in 1980.

Moments before the leaders began talks with Makoni - who ran as an independent in the presidential elections and is believed to have finished third - the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, left the talks abruptly with his delegation. 'As far as we are concerned, the talks are finished for us. Everything regarding Morgan has been discussed,' said MDC spokesman Nqobizitha Mlilo as the delegation sped away. The MDC said it would explain its position at a later press conference. In the early hours of this morning, the heads-of-state meeting appeared deadlocked in its attempts to draft a final communiqué. Presidents and their delegations were tight-lipped as they walked between meeting rooms in the Mulungushi conference centre. Only Tsvangirai's abrupt departure provided a clue that the MDC leader - who claims to have won the presidential poll outright, with 50.3 per cent of the vote - had been sidelined by the regional leaders.

Earlier yesterday, South African president Thabo Mbeki called on Mugabe in Harare after the Zimbabwean president refused to attend the Lusaka talks. It is unclear to what extent he was consulted by Mbeki about the prospect of a unity government, nor whether he was telephoned during yesterday's talks. Observers said a unity government could take many forms in Zimbabwe and that the positions of Deputy President and Prime Minister could be reinstated as part of such a structure. 'SADC leaders have always favored Makoni because he provides a way of salvaging Zanu PF,' said one Western diplomat. The developments in Lusaka came as Zimbabwean state media announced a recount of presidential ballots. Diplomats in Lusaka said the delay in releasing election results had - from the start - simply been a ploy for buying time to negotiate a transition.

Earlier yesterday, Western diplomats had been shocked by Mbeki's statement, at the end of his visit to Harare, that 'there is no crisis in Zimbabwe'. He was filmed holding hands with Mugabe on the tarmac of Harare airport, where the Zimbabwean leader proclaimed that SADC had been 'hijacked' by Britain in its bid to destroy the country. The proposal to put in place a form of unity government to oversee the end of Mugabe's 28-year reign marks a diplomatic breakthrough for SADC. Seven months ago, at another summit on Zimbabwe in Lusaka, the region's leaders gave Mugabe a standing ovation. But the regional impact of the economic decline in Zimbabwe has now become untenable for SADC, many of whose governments now come from a grassroots democratic base, rather than being products of former liberation movements.

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