Zimbabwe opposition says mediation talks may be over

Bombay News.Net
Sunday 12th October, 2008

Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai has warned he will withdraw from talks on political power-sharing if mediation fails to break a month-long deadlock.

On the weekend, Tsvangirai, speaking at an MDC rally in the Zimbabwe capital Harare, said: “If this mediation fails, we will say, this marriage has failed to be consummated, and we cannot force things.”

“There will be no option but to go our separate ways,” he told his supporters.

Attempts to settle Zimbabwe's political crisis appeared to be shattered Saturday after President Robert Mugabe allocated all the incoming power-sharing government's critical cabinet portfolios to his Zanu-PF party.

The move was immediately denounced as unilateral by the MDC, with which the authoritarian Mugabe has been deadlocked over cabinet posts for nearly a month in the wake of the signing of a power-sharing deal Sep 15th.

On Friday, Mugabe, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, head of a small offshoot of the MDC, again failed to agree on the portfolios.

Neighbouring South Africa's former president Thabo Mbeki, the mediator in power-sharing talks between the three, is due to travel to Zimbabwe Monday.

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