US, UK plans to torpedo unity government draw fire

• US withdraws support for unity government

• Tsvangirai's remarks at Gaberone press briefing

• Tsvangirai threatens to quit unity government talks

• Tsvangirai will snub Mugabe appointment - spokesman

• In letter, Mugabe appoints Tsvangirai Prime Minister

• Motlanthe expects Zim government this week

• Ending Zimbabwe's nightmare: A possible way forward

• Motlanthe wants Tsvangirai sworn-in 'immediately'

• MDC threatens to block Amendment 19

• Mugabe raps 'prostitute' Tsvangirai

• Alfi Nyoni: Why Tsvangirai must join government

• Africa shows little appetite for Zim sanctions, intervention

• SA tells Zim leaders to put lives before politics

• Mugabe tells supporters to be ready for new elections

• Post Editorial: Tsvangirai pushing his luck too far

• Zambian newspaper lashes Tsvangirai, warns of 'shifting tide of public opinion'

• Document: Tendai Biti's letter to Mbeki

• Negotiators strike agreement on Constitutional Amendment No. 19

• Talks threatened as Mbeki, Tsvangirai trade barbs

• Mbeki letter 'angers' Tsvangirai

• Elders urge MDC to join unity government

• Motlanthe wants Zim rivals to be sworn-in

• Tsvangirai eyes new Zimbabwe government in 2 months

• Text: statement by South Africa cabinet on Zimbabwe

• Document: SADC communique on Zimbabwe, DRC

Posted to the web: 23/12/2008 01:31:11
A NEW push by Britain and the United States to torpedo a power sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe and his opposition rivals drew fire from Harare on Monday, with one MP accusing the western powers of practising “jungle politics”.

The Zimbabwe government said it “had no time” for US President George Bush’s “diplomatic flute”.

Britain and the United States are demanding that Mugabe steps down, saying he is a stumbling block to the implementation of a power sharing deal.

"Power-sharing isn't dead but Mugabe has become an absolute impossible obstacle to achieving it," Britain's Africa Minister Mark Malloch Brown said. "He's so distrusted by all sides that I think the Americans are absolutely right - he's going to have to step aside.”

Malloch Brown spoke a day after US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said Mugabe had “reneged” on sharing power with opposition MDC leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.

"The power sharing agreement ... needs to be implemented with someone other than Robert Mugabe as president,” Fraser declared.

Political commentators warned Britain and America’s new combative approach to the Zimbabwe crisis risked hardening feelings among African leaders wary of what they see as neo-colonial attitudes from western countries.

"The only likelihood is that they (African leaders) will harden in their stand against so-called Western imperialism," said John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe. "I think (Mugabe) actually enjoys all that pressure and sees it as giving him the limelight."

African leaders insist that the implementation of a power sharing agreement signed on September 15 is the only solution to Zimbabwe’s decade-long political and economic crisis.

South Africa, in particular, has been impatient to see the implementation of the deal. Over the weekend, it forced the release of Morgan Tsvangirai’s passport so that he can leave Botswana where he has been for close to a month and go home to be sworn-in as Prime Minister. The MDC leader’s travel papers had expired.

With Britain and America seemingly withdrawing support for the power sharing agreement, Tsvangirai finds himself in an invidious position as any economic recovery in Zimbabwe will require the goodwill of the western powers who have imposed sanctions on the country. America, in particular, said it could no longer guarantee that it would lift sanctions.

Tsholotsho North MP Professor Jonathan Moyo, the only independent in Zimbabwe’s 210-member legislative assembly, said if Tsvangirai pulled out of the power sharing agreement, it would be hard for him to argue that he is acting independently.

“Zimbabwe's problem in getting the much needed political settlement does not in fact come from the neo-colonial Americans but from their puppets amongst us,” said Moyo, a former government minister.

He added: “You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise that the soon-to-be jobless Jendayi Fraser said her neo-colonial rubbish against an agreement between Zimbabwean parties fully knowing that her discredited boss, who deserves every shoe treatment he can get from progressive forces around the world, has some most unfortunate puppets in the shape of Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC sell-outs in Zimbabwe who will have no shame in peddling and defending her rubbish.

“For Africa, it has been the same problem in history. Just like slavery and colonialism were made possible by African puppets who sold out their compatriots to slave traders and colonial masters, today imperialism and neo-colonialism are facilitated by puppets like Tsvangirai and his MDC lot who are selling out their countrries while masquerading as democrats and human rights activists when they are in fact paid mouthpieces with no values of their own.”

Moyo said the power sharing agreement could still be saved if incoming US President Barack Obama decides to change course.

“Zimbabweans and progressive sections of the international community are hoping that the incoming Obama administration will leave jungle politics of Auntie Tom Fraser in the bush and support SADC's efforts to ensure the success of the September 15 agreement in the interest of civilised politics and they must understand that any sell-out who comes to power in Zimbabwe as an American or British puppet will not manage to rule the country. Never ever!”

Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba told the state-run Herald newspaper that they would not be doing any diplomatic business with Bush’s White House and were already looking beyond to an Obama administration.

He said: "We have no time for US President George W. Bush’s diplomatic flute. We are talking about an administration whose sun has set. Why bother?"

Tsvangirai appears in step with the new US and British message, threatening last week to walk away from the unity government talks if opposition activists held by security forces are not released by the new year.

It remained unclear on Monday when Tsvangirai would leave for Zimbabwe, with a spokesman saying he was yet to receive his passport.
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