Zimbabwe: Opposition MDC seeks second mediator

(SomaliNet) Zimbabwe\'s opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Tuesday it hopes a meeting this week between the South African president and a top African Union official will result in a second mediator joining efforts to resolve their nation\'s crisis.

But South Africa\'s deputy foreign minister said the issue of a mediator besides President Thabo Mbeki was a \"fake argument.\"

That sharp difference of opinion on what Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has raised as a central issue does not bode well for Mbeki\'s efforts to guide Tsvangirai and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe toward ending a deadly political crisis and putting Zimbabwe\'s ravaged economy on the road to recovery. Tsvangirai has accused Mbeki of bias in favor of Mugabe.

\"There\'s no progress (in getting talks started) and there will not be any progress until there\'s an expansion of the mediation team,\" Tsvangirai spokesman George Sibotshiwe said on Tuesday.

He said he hoped Jean Ping, the AU\'s chief executive — who is due in South Africa on Friday to be briefed by Mbeki on his progress so far — will persuade Mbeki to bring on another mediator.

Last week, Christian leaders in Zimbabwe called on Mugabe and Tsvangirai to meet face to face to resolve the crisis, saying they did not believe a June 27 presidential runoff Mugabe claims to have won reflected \"the will of the people of Zimbabwe.\"

In the first round of voting in March, Tsvangirai had beaten Mugabe and two others, but didn\'t win the 50 percent plus one vote necessary to avoid a runoff. Tsvangirai pulled out days before the runoff against Mugabe because of violence against his supporters.

The government and the opposition say they are willing to share power. But the ruling ZANU-PF party wants Mugabe — in power since 1980 and seen as increasingly autocratic — at the head of any coalition, something the opposition and Mugabe\'s critics in the West have rejected.

Over 1,000 opposition supporters and officials are in police custody on \"trumped up\" charges of political violence, Tsvangirai\'s Movement for Democratic Change party said Tuesday. Fourteen party members were freed Monday.

Independent human rights groups accuse Mugabe\'s police, soldiers and party militants for most of the violence, though there have been reports of MDC retaliatory attacks.

The African Union last month endorsed Mbeki as mediator, a role he took on more than a year ago.

But the MDC boss repeatedly has called for Mbeki to be either replaced or a second mediator named, a demand backed by Zambia and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who praised Mbeki\'s efforts but called for another \"high-profile\" African negotiator.

South Africa\'s deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, said the issue of a second mediator is not on the agenda for the Ping-Mbeki meeting.

\"I don\'t believe that at this very crucial moment, adding new bodies ... is what is required. Zimbabweans don\'t have the luxury of not finding a solution to which they have all publicly committed themselves,\" he said.

But Sibotshiwe, the opposition spokesman, said there has been no progress since MDC negotiator Tendai Biti came to Pretoria last week to lay out the party\'s conditions for talks.-AP