Summit ends with no agreement reached on Zimbabwe

"A great opportunity has been missed by the Southern African Development Community [SADC] to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe.

"We are shocked and saddened that the [Extra-Ordinary Heads of State and Government] SADC Summit has failed to deal with outstanding issues," said Tsvangirai, speaking after a marathon session of negotiations on Sunday, 9 November.

The outstanding issues, Tsvangirai said related to more than just the allocation of the Ministry of Home Affairs to a particular party, but to the fact that the historic Global Political Agreement, while having been signed on 15 September 2008, has not been implemented.

With regard to the issues of division of government portfolios, Tsvangirai highlighted that President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF were in charge of the Ministry of Defence, as well as State Security, and it therefore only made sense to allocate Home Affairs to the MDC.

Executive secretary of SADC, Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomao, told media that SADC had ruled that the Ministry of Home Affairs was to be co-managed between ZANU-PF and Mr Tsvangirai's MDC faction.

"The efficacy of the [co-sharing] arrangement [will] be reviewed after six months by the parties with the assistance of the guarantors including SADC, the African Union [AU] and the facilitator [former President Thabo Mbeki]," said Dr Salomao.

Tsvangirai, however, has rejected SADC's proposal saying the proposal has not been agreed to by all parties, and will not work.

Dr Salomao said options including co-sharing and rotation of the Home Affairs was placed on the table.

The rotation of the critical portfolio, which includes control of the police and immigration, could not be agreed upon as the parties differed on whom would first take control of the ministry, the executive secretary of SADC said.

Should the MDC agree to SADC's proposal, the Ministry of Home Affairs will effectively be run and governed by two ministers, one coming from each party.

To give full effect to SADC's proposal, Dr Salomao highlighted that the parties first needed to introduce the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Number 19, which defines the roles and powers of the three leaders.

With regard to the conflict unfolding in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Dr Salomao said the summit considered and endorsed the joint statement of Heads of State of the Great Lakes Region Summit on 7 November 2008 on the situation in the DRC.

The joint statement called for an immediate ceasefire in North Kivu, the establishment of humanitarian corridors throughout the area to ensure immediate relief to displaced people, and implementation and adherence to the Goma Agreement.

The summit also called on the United Nations (UN) secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to strengthen the mandate of the 17 000 strong peacekeeping force in the DRC, known as MONUC.

"The Great Lakes region would not stand by and witness incessant and destructive acts of violence by any armed groups against innocent civilians ... [and] the Great Lakes Region will send peacemaking forces into the Kivu Province [if necessary].

"Many agreements entered into regarding peace and security in the Great Lakes Region were not implemented because of the intransigence of [rebel General] Laurent Nkunda.

"... and that is why we [as SADC] are deploying military experts to the DRC immediately to assess the situation," Dr Salomao said.

At the moment, only 7 000 of the 17 000 peacekeepers are in the eastern region of the country where the fighting has intensified recently.

SADC will therefore be asking the UN to review the mandate and terms of reference of MONUC, the SADC executive secretary explained.

The Extra-Ordinary Summit was convened to review the latest political and security situation in the region with particular reference to the current developments in the DRC and Zimbabwe.

Article published courtesy of BuaNews