HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Opposition legislators jeered President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday as he opened Zimbabwe's parliament, singing and chanting and sometimes drowning out his voice.The rare show of defiance -- broadcast live on national television -- set the stage for a combative legislature, even as Mugabe and his political foes try to negotiate a power sharing arrangement after disputed elections.Mugabe's speech could sometimes not be heard over the jeers of his opponents, who clapped and sang songs deriding him and the ZANU-PF. "ZANU is rotten. You are great liars," they sang."We are tired of you," they shouted.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Opposition legislators jeered President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday as he opened Zimbabwe's parliament, singing and chanting and sometimes drowning out his voice.
The rare show of defiance -- broadcast live on national television -- set the stage for a combative legislature, even as Mugabe and his political foes try to negotiate a power sharing arrangement after disputed elections.
Mugabe's speech could sometimes not be heard over the jeers of his opponents, who clapped and sang songs deriding him and the ZANU-PF. "ZANU is rotten. You are great liars," they sang.
"We are tired of you," they shouted.
Of course, they are the opposition to Mugabe, who stole the election again. But they still, despite the massive cheating, are the majority in parliement. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
The talks to bring peace to Zimbabwe drag on, check-mated by the conflicting notions of power-transfer versus power-sharing. Mandy Rossouw put a similar set of questions to both Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change to assess the political temperature snip snip Tendai Biti: secretary general of the MDC Why, in your view, did the talks take so long to reach agreement? It has not taken a long time. If you look at negotiations in Darfur and Sudan and South Africa, the talks took nothing less than two years. It is actually a shock just how quickly we have been able to reach agreements on the things we reached agreement on. The principles of constitutionalism and non-violence have been agreed. The issue that is bogging us down now is the nature of the state and of its power relations. It's not a walk in the park. What should be the most important outcome of these talks? The most important outcome is a solution that places Zimbabwe on an irreversible path to the resolution of the crisis once and for all. This can't be a piecemeal agreement.
Tendai Biti: secretary general of the MDC Why, in your view, did the talks take so long to reach agreement? It has not taken a long time. If you look at negotiations in Darfur and Sudan and South Africa, the talks took nothing less than two years. It is actually a shock just how quickly we have been able to reach agreements on the things we reached agreement on. The principles of constitutionalism and non-violence have been agreed. The issue that is bogging us down now is the nature of the state and of its power relations. It's not a walk in the park. What should be the most important outcome of these talks? The most important outcome is a solution that places Zimbabwe on an irreversible path to the resolution of the crisis once and for all. This can't be a piecemeal agreement.
I've no idea how long this is going to take... But in the meantime:
Food rots as Zim aid ban continues - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source
Aid agencies in Zimbabwe remain barred from reaching millions of starving Zimbabweans, despite two separate agreements in the inter-party talks on the lifting of the aid ban. The Memorandum of Understanding signed between Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change last month called for the lifting of all restrictions on the work of aid groups. A subsequent joint statement condemning violence also called for humanitarian assistance to be allowed into the country and for aid to reach thousands of victims of political violence. However, Robert Mugabe's government has still not lifted the ban it imposed before the June 27 presidential run-off election, based on claims that NGOs were using food aid to campaign for the opposition. In an Orwellian twist the ban was announced by "Welfare Minister" Nicholas Goche, one of Zanu-PF's negotiators in the talks. A partial lifting of the ban was announced later, for groups providing assistance to HIV/Aids sufferers.
Estimated two million people receiving no food aid in a country where malnourishment is already a feature...
