Mbeki says Zimbabwe talks continue
PRETORIA (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition factions are continuing with negotiations to resolve the political crisis, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday.
"Those negotiations among the Zimbabweans are continuing," Mbeki said in a briefing in Pretoria. The South African leader is overseeing the talks between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Mugabe's government and the opposition have been deadlocked since the Zimbabwean leader was re-elected on June 27 in a poll boycotted by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai because of violence against his supporters.
Western nations also condemned the poll as not free.
Mbeki and other African leaders have pressed Mugabe and Tsvangirai to negotiate a national unity government, which is seen by the continent as the only way to avert further violence and reverse an economic slide in Zimbabwe.
The African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), both concerned by a crisis that has flooded neighboring states with millions of refugees, have pushed for a power-sharing deal.
ZANU-PF, however, has said it will not accept any deal that fails to recognize Mugabe's re-election or seeks to reverse his land redistribution program, which has seen the government seize thousands of white-owned farms beginning in 2000.
Critics say the policy, which was designed to provide land to poor blacks, has destroyed the once-prosperous agricultural sector. Zimbabwe is struggling with chronic shortages of maize, meat, cooking oil and other food.
Tsvangirai's MDC insists that he be president because he won a first round of voting in March though without the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot. The MDC leader abandoned the run-off because of attacks on his supporters.
The MDC said that pro-Mugabe militia have killed 120 opposition supporters since the March election. Mugabe, who has branded the MDC a puppet organization of the West and vowed to never let it take power, blames the opposition for the bloodshed.
The parties also disagree over how long a national unity government should remain in power. Tsvangirai's MDC wants fresh elections held as soon as possible, while Mugabe, who has ruled since 1980, wants to carry on with his new five-year mandate.
(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
