Mugabe, Tsvangirai sign Zimbabwe framework deal

Mugabe, Tsvangirai sign Zimbabwe framework deal
By Cris Chinaka 20 minutes ago
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday signed a deal laying down the framework for formal talks on forming a power sharing government to end a deep political crisis.

It was the first meeting in 10 years between the two rival leaders, who are widely believed to detest each other. They sat at a conference table separated by South African President Thabo Mbeki who mediated the deal.
The preliminary agreement was signed in Harare's Rainbow Towers Hotel after weeks of deadlock since Mugabe was re-elected on June 27 in a widely condemned poll boycotted by Tsvangirai because of violence against his supporters.
Mbeki said the agreement committed both sides to an intense process to try to complete substantive negotiations as quickly as possible. "All parties recognize the urgency," he said.
A subdued Mugabe said after the signing that the agreement was "to chart a new way of political interaction."
Tsvangirai called the ceremony "a very historic occasion" and stressed that a solution must be found.
"If we put our heads together, I am sure we can find a solution. In fact, not finding a solution is not an option," he said.
Officials from both sides said the framework agreement sets a two-week deadline for the government and two factions of the opposition MDC to discuss key issues including a unity government and how to hold new elections.

Mugabe called for an end to Western sanctions against him and his ruling circle and said there was no need for intervention from Europe in Zimbabwe. He has frequently called Tsvangirai a puppet of former colonial ruler Britain.
Zimbabwe's economic collapse under Mugabe's 28-year rule has plunged the once prosperous country into inflation of at least 2 million percent as well as crippling food and fuel shortages.
Tsvangirai had previously refused to sign even a framework deal unless government militias stop violence he says has killed 120 of his supporters. He also wanted Mugabe to recognize his victory in the first round of the presidential poll on March 29.
The MDC leader pulled out of the run-off because of the violence between the two rounds.
Mugabe, 84, blames the opposition for the bloodshed.
The turning point in ending the deadlock appeared to be a meeting last Friday between Mbeki, the African Union's top permanent official, Jean Ping, and U.N. envoy Haile Menkerios.
Mbeki, who has up to now negotiated alone as the designated regional mediator, agreed to expand the mediation process to include the African Union, United Nations and officials from the Southern African Development Community in a "reference group."
Mbeki is expected to liaise with the group although it will not be directly involved in negotiations.
Expansion of the mediation beyond Mbeki has been a key demand of Tsvangirai, who has strongly criticized the South African president, accusing him of favoring Mugabe.
"The actual negotiations are going to be a lot tougher and the MDC's aim of easing Mugabe out of power or sharing executive power (with ZANU-PF) in a transitional government ahead of another election is going to be more difficult to get," said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe.

Jesse Jackson: relic

Jesse Jackson: relic
Thursday, July 10th 2008, 7:00 PM
Daniels/AP
The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks during a news conference in Chicago Wednesday.
Yes, the outburst - and the fact that it never occurred to media-savvy Jesse Jackson that his microphone might be on - was utterly, pardon us, nutty. But it's not to be dismissed lightly.
Crack open the substance of Jackson's complaints about Barack Obama and you discover a stunning contrast between two black leaders, one with a good shot at occupying the White House, the other stuck somewhere in the past.
What Jackson said was that Obama has been "talking down to black people." His discontent apparently stemmed from a speech Obama gave on Father's Day, in which the future Democratic nominee told a black church congregation that "we need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception."
That message was a well-received, wise recognition of the fact that roughly 50% of black children live in fatherless homes. And, as Obama said, "Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools, and 20 times more likely to end up in prison."
So, what about that prompted Jackson to broach castration? Apologizing, he explained:
"My appeal was for the moral content of [Obama's] message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often lead to their irresponsibility."
Response: unbelievable.
Jackson's statement hangs on the premise that Obama is offering little to society's less fortunate. He appears to have missed the part of Obama's campaign that has focused on people on the bottom, with positions on protecting American jobs from foreign competition, improving failing schools, expanding health care coverage, etc. By which we are referring to essentially Obama's entire domestic agenda. Oh, that.
More importantly, by highlighting the importance of personal responsibility, Obama is shifting the discourse away from the notion that ills such as out-of-wedlock births have their exclusive root causes in governmental failures and social victimization.
(Side note: When Jackson admitted fathering a child out of wedlock in 2001, saying, "I fully accept responsibility," did he mean it, or deep down did he blame government neglect?)
Obama has achieved extraordinary success by running, to use his word, as a candidate of "hope" for Americans of all stripes rather than as a candidate of grievance for one racial group. His mind-set is very different from Jackson's, his appeal is worlds apart, and he has won over much of the country.

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