Zimbabwe officials crack down amid talk of a deal

Authorities searched offices of the main opposition party and detained foreign journalists Thursday, fueling fears that ruling party hard-liners were trying to block a deal to end President Robert Mugabe’s 28 years in power.

Five days after weekend balloting, the country’s election commission still had not released results of the presidential voting. But officials have announced that Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party lost its parliamentary majority for the first time.

Opposition sources close to negotiations with the ruling party said there appeared to be divisions between those who wanted to fight to maintain power and those who were willing to negotiate a deal that would allow them to protect the property and other benefits they have accumulated in nearly three decades in power.

Mugabe, 84, has presided over the collapse of what once was one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most prosperous countries. Inflation is running in excess of 100,000%, unemployment is 80% and a third of the population survives on food aid. Mugabe was to hold a crucial meeting of his party’s politburo today.

Mugabe was pictured on television Thursday for the first time since Saturday’s elections. He did not speak to the camera.

--

Signs on the street

After years of fear, there were some signs of change on the streets. On the outskirts of Harare, people gathered at a local market and waved and cheered, shouting, “A new Zimbabwe!”

But the old order was dying hard.

Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party, said the raid of its offices at a Harare hotel targeted him and other party leaders. No one was detained.

“Mugabe has started a crackdown. It is quite clear he has unleashed a war,” Biti said.

At another hotel, police detained two journalists. A witness said a small group of police arrived and told everyone there to remain where they were while they began searching the hotel. Then dozens more officers arrived and surrounded it.

The New York Times confirmed that its correspondent in the region, Barry Bearak, was one of those taken into custody. It said he had been taken to a Harare jail.

Authorities warned reporters a week ago that they would deal swiftly with those who were caught bypassing Zimbabwe’s strict accreditation laws. It was unclear whether Bearak held accreditation.

Opposition sources said some of ruling party hawks were threatening to use a presidential decree to delay a presidential runoff election for 90 days. According to law, it should be held within 21 days.

Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said the ruling party would fight on.

He accused the West of sponsoring the opposition in a campaign to force Mugabe from power.

“President Mugabe is going to fight. He is not going anywhere. He has not lost,” Matonga said. “We are going to go hard and fight and get the majority required.”

But foreign diplomats said the searches and arrests could be the regime’s last gasp, and they expressed optimism that Mugabe could be on the brink of accepting a deal to step down.

The MDC says its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidential election in the first round but that it was willing to take part in a runoff if official results indicate he got less than the required 50% plus one vote.

In Washington, the State Department expressed impatience with delays in releasing the election results.

“I think we are well past the point where the results should have come out,” said spokesman Tom Casey.

“We believe that it’s high time for the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to release those results and to make sure that those results do, in fact, reflect the will of the people when they cast their ballots this past weekend.”

Voters, even in some ruling party strongholds, deserted Mugabe, who has been in power since white-minority rule in the former British colony was ended in 1980.

The army may be a key factor in negotiations between the ruling party and the opposition. Some commanders have said openly they will never salute Tsvangirai.

--

The farms issue

But one opposition source said officers wanted to be able to keep commercial farms that Mugabe seized from white owners and gave to them, if they are productive.

The source said the opposition had given assurances that productive farms would not be taken away and that members of the ruling party would not be prosecuted for past crimes.

Mugabe has been under pressure from the leaders of Southern African nations to accept the election results.

“We would continue to hope that we will achieve this outcome, that nobody would be contesting the results,” South African President Thabo Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria.

At one point Thursday, the Electoral Commission delayed the release of results in the Senate for “logistical reasons.” The Senate count precedes the announcement of the presidential runoff. However, the count later resumed.

“It’s not normal. It’s madness,” said Biti, of the MDC, who said intelligence officers and police were in the ballot-counting center.

--

Request denied

According to other opposition sources, the ZANU-PF negotiators demanded four seats in a government of national unity, a request denied by the opposition even though that would represent a minority in the government.

One ZANU-PF member, Percy Gombakomba, 53, a retired official in the presidential office and a veteran of the liberation war against white-minority rule, said many war veterans were afraid they would lose everything under Tsvangirai.

Mugabe for years has cultivated relations with the war veterans, but Gombakomba said they actually received few benefits from Mugabe and many now considered him a traitor to their cause.

“Tsvangirai is coming. All right, we like him if we can walk hand in hand, and if he recognizes us. If Tsvangirai wants to rule in a stable manner, then he must recognize the liberators,” Gombakomba said.

--

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire in Washington contributed to this report.