Senior aides hold secret talks on ditching Mugabe
Zimbabwe army and police chiefs want immunity from prosecution before
backing regime change Tracy McVeigh, chief re****ter The Observer,
Sunday September 7 2008
Some of President Robert Mugabe's senior aides have had secret
negotiations with South African mediators in an effort to secure
amnesties from any future prosecution in return for sup****ting regime
change in Zimbabwe.
Army, police and secret service chiefs have repeatedly pledged loyalty
to Mugabe in public and insisted that they would never 'salute' or
sup****t a government led by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the
head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who secured most
votes in the presidential election that took place in March this year.
But government sources in both Zimbabwe and South Africa have told The
Observer that a senior army general and a Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) chief visited Pretoria last weekend to seek
assurances from South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki that they would
not be prosecuted in the event of Tsvangirai taking over.
Mbeki is mediating in the power-sharing talks between Mugabe's ruling
Zanu-PF party and the MDC, negotiations which appeared to be hanging by
a thread last week with the MDC threatening to pull out and accusing
Zanu-PF of a lack of commitment to dialogue.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said his party's patience was being
stretched to the limit after Mugabe told journalists in Zambia on
Wednesday at the funeral of President Levy Mwanawasa that he would form
a new government of national unity if Tsvangirai did not sign the
do***ent already agreed to during the talks.
'We feel frozen at the moment and if the MDC does not want to see the
country move, then we will be left with no choice than to form a new
government without them,' said Mugabe. Yesterday, however, the MDC
backed away from its threat, insisting that it was still fully
committed to dialogue.
Robert Mugabe relies heavily on Zimbabwe's defence force chiefs, most
of whom have been sup****ters of the ageing dictator since the 1970s war
of independence and were heavily involved in conducting the murderous
campaign of violence against MDC sup****ters and activists that erupted
after the March election results were announced.
Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni Rat****anga, said he knew nothing of any
secret meetings and insisted power-sharing talks were continuing. 'You
know quite well that we will never ever announce the contents of the
talks through the press before making a feedback to the Zimbabwean
community, Southern African Development Community and the African
Union,' Rat****anga told The Observer
Sources close to the talks said the Zimbabwe defence forces'
Lieutenant-General Constantine Chiwenga, police commissioner-general
Augustine Chihuri, and CIO director-general Happyton Bonyongwe were at
a private meeting in Pretoria. Behind the scenes, Zanu-PF'S politburo,
including Mugabe, is said to be distancing itself from the violence
that killed more than 120 people between the first round of voting and
June's one-man presidential run-off poll, laying the blame on the army
and the CIO.
It is widely expected that, if there are any future trials for crimes
against humanity, Mugabe will escape prosecution due to old age.
Tsvangirai, who will tomorrow address the largest MDC rally to be held
in Zimbabwe since the outbreak of violence to mark the ninth
anniversary of his party, said in the course of an interview with The
Observer earlier this year that he had no thirst for vengeance against
the 'old man'.
But Mugabe's powerful backers would need strong guarantees that an
amnesty from prosecution, and even a possible future refuge outside
Zimbawe, would be available to them if they are to distance themselves
from the country's leader.
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