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15 August 2008
HARARE (AFP) — Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was briefly prevented Thursday from attending a key regional summit but said he was "hopeful" talks to resolve the country's political crisis would resume.
"I'm hopeful that the talks will resume," Tsvangirai told AFP by phone after Zimbabwean authorities seized his passport at Harare airport, preventing him from flying to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meet in South Africa.
"The whole thing was going to be determined at this SADC summit," he said. Passports belonging to other members of his party's leadership were also seized. "We were all scheduled to go and meet with the troika, the SADC organ on politics and defence," Tsvangirai said.
The passports were later returned, officials from his party said. A source from his party had said Tsvangirai was to fly to South Africa on Thursday evening after receiving his passport, but his spokesman George Sibotshiwe said later he was likely to leave early on Friday.
Zimbabwe police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena issued a statement saying reports of Tsvangirai's passport being seized "misrepresents the position". "As everyone is aware, for any foreign travel, one needs travel documents and Mr Tsvangirai does not currently have any such documents", the statement said.
"For the record Mr Tsvangirai has not been arrested." An MDC source later said Tsvangirai had a passport plus emergency travel documents. He obtained the emergency travel documents after delays in the government issuing him a new passport, the source said.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party had issued a statement saying he had been detained along with two other top members of his party at the airport. But the MDC leader disputed the reference to a detention: he said the incident amounted to his passport being seized, without any reason having been given.
He declined to discuss details of the power-sharing talks aimed at ending Zimbabwe's political crisis. The crisis intensified after President Robert Mugabe's re-election in a June run-off poll was widely condemned as a sham. Tsvangirai boycotted the run-off despite finishing ahead of Mugabe in the March first round of the election, citing rising violence against his supporters that had left dozens dead and thousands injured.
The power-sharing talks are currently stalled after Tsvangirai said he needed more time to consider a deal agreed by the other main participants, Mugabe and the leader of a smaller opposition faction, Arthur Mutambara. The two would have a majority in parliament if they combined forces. The ruling party lost its majority for the first time since independence in recent elections.
The talks' mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, conceded after three days of negotiations adjourned on Tuesday that "there is disagreement on one element over which Morgan Tsvangirai had asked for time to reflect." In comments broadcast on South African television station SABC on Thursday, Tsvangirai said, "we are taking a principled stand."
"Anyone who accuses me of reneging on this and that has to ask Zimbabweans what they want. If I maintain a principled stand to defend the will of the people of Zimbabwe, what's wrong with that?" Zimbabwe's government mouthpiece the Herald reported on Thursday that Tsvangirai had balked at signing the deal, but that the opposition leader "would be accommodated in the new government when he was ready to sign."
Mbeki is expected to brief his peers at the 14-nation SADC summit in Johannesburg this weekend. Trade unions are planning protests against Mugabe's participation in the summit in the absence of a negotiated settlement to the crisis. Zimbabwe's neighbour Botswana has threatened to boycott the summit if the 84-year-old attends without a deal.
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