Zimbabwe Plan Includes Mugabe Resignation
By ANGUS SHAW
Associated Press Writer

January 12, 2003, 4:57 PM EST

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- President Robert Mugabe would resign and hand
authority to a new power-sharing government under a deal discussed by
Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition officials, mediators said Sunday.


The offer made by two of the ruling party's most powerful figures --
Parliament speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa and armed forces commander Gen.
Vitalis Zvinavashe -- was an effort to help Zimbabwe regain
international legitimacy and renewed aid and investment during a period
of transitional rule. 

The mediators, who fear allegations of treason if the deal collapses,
said the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was assured Mugabe
would step down under any deal. 

"There is wide consensus Mugabe is the problem, and national and party
dialogue must begin," said a mediator who spoke on condition on
anonymity. "Colleagues have shifted the blame onto him, and he must
accept the consequences." 

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai confirmed the offer and told The
Associated Press his party's lawmakers were ready to vote with the
ruling party for a constitutional amendment creating a caretaker
government once Mugabe stepped down. 

That would be a departure from recent opposition policy. 

Ruling party officials were unavailable for comment Sunday. 

A power-sharing government would try to end an economic meltdown that
has sent inflation soaring, caused a massive fuel shortage and left at
least half Zimbabwe's population on the verge of starvation. 

Mugabe, 78, who led the nation to independence in 1980, won a new
six-year term in March elections. Independent observers said the
elections were deeply flawed and the opposition, along with Britain, the
European Union and the United States, say the voting was rigged and
influenced by violence and intimidation. 

The early retirement of Mugabe, once seen as a towering African
statesman, had long seemed inconceivable. 

The deal would guarantee him immunity from any potential prosecution,
Tsvangirai said. The opposition, which repeatedly has called for Mugabe
to be tried for alleged misrule and human rights violations during his
23 years in power, would not insist Mugabe go into exile, he said. 

"The country is on its knees. If people are asked to make that sacrifice
of giving him immunity, and to say, 'Let's forget the past and move
forward,' let it be," Tsvangirai said. 

"We have more to lose by getting bogged down until the country collapses
and more to gain by saying this is a hurdle we have overcome" 

Mugabe, who is expected to return to his office in Harare on Monday
after a two-week vacation abroad, has not commented on any possible
deal. His absence during the country's food and gasoline crises fanned
criticism at home. 

During the past three years, Mugabe's government has seized most of
Zimbabwe's thousands of white-owned commercial farms, calling it a
justified struggle by landless blacks to correct colonial era injustices
that left 4,000 whites with one-third of the nation's farm land. 

Farming disruptions and poor rains have led to a food crisis. Political
chaos coupled with the government's increasing isolation has caused
acute shortages of hard currency and essential imports. 

Under the constitution, new elections must be held within 90 days of the
president leaving office. 

Tsvangirai said his party was prepared to support a parliamentary vote
for a constitutional amendment "to vary that period" until conditions
for fresh elections were suitable. 
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

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