Zimbabwe PM boycotts unity government

[October 16, 2009]  HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Zimbabwe's prime minister announced he was boycotting the country's troubled unity government Friday, citing the "persecution" of a top aide being tried on what are widely seen as trumped up coup allegations.

At a news conference Friday, longtime opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said, "We are not really pulling out officially," but that his party would not attend Cabinet meetings or engage in other executive work with President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change party would continue parliament activities.

Tsvangirai said the freeze will continue until there was a resolution of the dispute over Roy Bennett.

Bennett is being tried on charges linked to long-discredited allegations that his party, the MDC, plotted President Mugabe's violent overthrow.

Friday's move demonstrates deep unhappiness within the MDC with the coalition. But Tsvangirai has repeatedly said he sees the coalition as the only way to ensure Zimbabwe's future, and he made that clear again by stopping short of bringing down the government by pulling out altogether.

ZANU-PF's reaction underlined tensions within the coalition.

"If MDC wants to disengage ... we don't have a problem with that," said Ephraim Masawi, a ZANU-PF spokesman. "We were having problems with MDC, working together. We have been trying but it was not easy."

Tsvangirai and Mugabe entered the unity government in February after two violence-plagued elections left the country at a political standstill and in economic ruin.

"Until confidence has been restored we can't continue to pretend that everything is well," Tsvangirai said. "It is our right to disengage from ZANU-PF."

Bennett, who was ordered back to jail earlier this week after seven months on bail, was due to stand trial starting Monday.

Tsvangirai had nominated Bennett as deputy agriculture minister in the coalition. Bennett was arrested the day the Cabinet was sworn in February and charged with weapons violations. He denies the charges against him.

"Roy Bennett is not being prosecuted, he is being persecuted," Tsvangirai said Friday.

The European Union said Thursday it was "deeply concerned" over Bennett's jailing. The bloc added it regretted "that politically motivated abuse persists in the country."

In Washington Thursday, U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters that the case against Bennett was a "blatant example of the absence of the rule of law in Zimbabwe."

Since the coalition was formed, Tsvangirai has condemned continuing human rights violations. Mugabe has demanded that Tsvangirai do more to get international sanctions lifted and foreign aid and investment restored.

The sanctions target top Mugabe aides, banning them from traveling abroad and freezing foreign bank accounts. Tsvangirai's extensive travels since becoming prime minister have rankled in ZANU-PF ranks.

"Our legs and hands are tied up because of the sanctions that we are facing, but the MDC continues to roam all over without being denied to go anywhere else," Masawi said Friday.

The coalition is Mugabe's only hope for taking Zimbabwe out of international isolation, and it has brought Tsvangirai closer to power than any election.

[Associated Press; By CHENGETAI ZVAUYA]

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