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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Robert Mugabe offered last twig of an olive branch on day of destiny |
| 2008-06-26 |
| As Zimbabwe hurtled towards its sham presidential election, Morgan Tsvangirai emerged from hiding yesterday with a message for his arch enemy: negotiate now, or never. In a telephone interview from the Dutch Embassy, Mr Tsvangirai told The Times that the time for talking would be over if President Mugabe went ahead with the vote tomorrow. “Negotiations will be over if Mr Mugabe declares himself the winner and considers himself the president. How can we negotiate?” he said. Mr Mugabe said yesterday that he might be prepared to talk after the poll, which the Government insisted would go ahead, despite the withdrawal of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader this week. Were Mr Mugabe to approach him afterwards, Mr Tsvangirai had this message for him: “Look, you refused to talk to me then, how can I talk to you now? I made these offers, I made these overtures, I told you I would negotiate before the elections and not after – because it’s not about elections, it’s about transition. “You disregarded that, you undertook violence against my supporters, you killed and maimed, you are still killing and maiming unarmed civilians, the army is still out there. How can you call yourself an elected presi-dent? You are illegitimate and I will not speak to an illegitimate president.” |
| Posted by:Fred |