Tsvangirai calls off unity government boycott

ZIMBABWE'S Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday said he had called off a boycott of power-sharing ties with President Robert Mugabe that had paralysed the fragile unity government for three weeks.

His announcement comes after a Southern African leaders' emergency summit aimed at ending the power-sharing deal impasse in the country.

“We have suspended our disengagement from the government with immediate effect,” Tsvangirai told reporters in Maputo, the Mozambican capital.

He spoke after the 15-nation Southern African Development Community security troika met to discuss the political impasse in Zimbabwe. Mugabe and deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara also attended the talks.

The meeting came after Tsvangirai on Oct. 16 withdrew from an eight-month-old power-sharing government with Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. The withdrawal followed disputes over unilateral government appointments made by Mugabe and alleged violence directed at MDC officials.

“We will give President Robert Mugabe 30 days to implement the agreements on the pertinent issues we are concerned about,” Tsvangirai said today, without elaborating.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza had opened the closed-door summit with a call on Zimbabwe's rival leaders to overcome their differences to ensure political and economic stability.

"We want to see the parties reiterate their commitment to continue working together to overcome the present challenges, always putting, as they have done, the national interest of their country first," Guebuza said in opening remarks distributed to reporters.

"Everything possible should be done to maintain political stability and the continued influx of foreign investment necessary for the progress of the ongoing process of relaunching the country's economy."

A coalition of Zimbabwean civil society groups said the unity deadlock between President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai had been accompanied by "a marked increase in threats to the rule of law".

The Zimbabwean Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism held a press conference on the sidelines of the summit to denounce an increase in abductions, torture, farm invasions and political violence in recent weeks.

The group urged leaders from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the regional bloc that organised the summit, to take a tougher stance on Zimbabwe.

"Our presence is meant to put pressure on SADC to ensure that they cease treating Mugabe with kid gloves," spokesman McDonald Lewanika told AFP.

"SADC countries (need) to begin to take the Zimbabwean question seriously and to do what is good, not just by Mugabe but by the people of Zimbabwe." Own Correspondent and Agencies