Tsvangirai 'media aide' briefly arrested as talks stall

Tsvangirai 'media aide' briefly arrested as talks stall

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By Lebo Nkatazo

ZIMBAWEAN police briefly arrested one of Morgan Tsvangirai’s aides moments after he walked out of power-sharing talks with President Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara on Tuesday night.

Andrew Chadwick is described as a “media aide” to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader.

Chadwick was seized as he left the Rainbow Towers hotel in central Harare with Tsvangirai. He was briefly held at the Harare Central Police Station before being released, his party said.

Tsvangirai refused to sign a power sharing deal with Mugabe after three days of talks mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki. The MDC leader and Mugabe are said to be at odds over “one issue, a non-issue”, according to Mutambara, leader of a rival MDC faction.

The “non-issue” is believed to be the share of executive powers between Tsvangirai as Prime Minister, and Mugabe as President.

Not much is known about Chadwick, but in 2003, he worked as a correspondent for the UK Telegraph newspaper.

Last Saturday, he was named by Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba in a newspaper column as the source of a phoney document which surfaced in the South African Star newspaper misrepresented as a leaked agreement between a cross-party negotiating team from Zimbabwe’s three main parties after two weeks of negotiations in Pretoria.

Zimbabwean authorities are said to have accused Chadwick of working for foreign intelligence. MDC official Eddie Cross said the police action was “purely vindictive”.
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