Zimbabwe leader heckled during parliament opening
By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press WriterTue Aug 26, 2:09 PM ET
Opposition legislators jeered President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday as he opened
Zimbabwe's parliament, singing and chanting and sometimes drowning out his
voice.
The rare show of defiance — broadcast live on national television — set the
stage for a combative legislature, even as Mugabe and his political foes try to
negotiate a power sharing arrangement after disputed elections.
Mugabe's speech could sometimes not be heard over the jeers of his opponents,
who clapped and sang songs deriding him and the ZANU-PF. "ZANU is rotten. You
are great liars," they sang.
"We are tired of you," they shouted.
Looking annoyed, Mugabe first raised his voice then raced through the final
lines of a speech railing against the West for sanctions it has imposed on
people and companies linked to him, including travel bans and asset freezes.
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe with increasing authoritarianism since declaring
independence from its former colonizer, Britain, in 1980 and had turned
parliament into a rubber-stamp body.
But, with the country in economic freefall, the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change has gained a strong following in recent years and this March
clinched a parliamentary majority, posing the most serious threat yet to the
84-year-old leader's decades-long rule.
Tuesday's raucous session may be a glimpse into a future of bitter debates and
close votes in parliament.
Opposition legislators also presented a petition Tuesday pointing out that the
opening of the parliament was "a clear breach" of the agreement that led to
power-sharing talks.
It called Mugabe "the illegitimate usurper of the people's will."
The petition also condemned the arrests of opposition legislators. When
parliamentarians reported Monday to be sworn in, two were arrested. A third
opposition legislator who is on the team negotiating power-sharing was arrested
at his home early Tuesday, the opposition reported.
Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the arrests are an attempt to subvert
his party's slight majority in parliament.
Some 2,000 opposition activists remain jailed in Zimbabwe months after March 29
elections where they garnered more votes than Mugabe and his party.
Mugabe reacted violently, unleashing soldiers, police and militants accused of
killing nearly 200 opposition members, breaking the limbs of thousands and
forcing tens of thousands from their homes with fire attacks.
In March, Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change won 100 of the 210
seats in parliament, upsetting ZANU-PF's long-held majority. Mugabe's party won
99 seats and a splinter opposition faction won 10. An independent who broke
away from Mugabe's party has the remaining seat.
In parliament Monday, the opposition's Lovemore Moyo won the race for speaker
by a surprising 110 votes to 98. The ballot was secret, but Moyo apparently got
votes from both Mugabe's party and the splinter faction to win a post that puts
him in charge of parliament's debate and schedule and gives him the power to
appoint committee chairmen.
Parliament's first order of business will be to approve funds for government
ministries and projects — a budget vote that normally would have been completed
months ago. So government business will remain largely paralyzed until
legislators meet again on Oct. 14.
If the opposition continues to win support from the splinter faction, it would
have the simple majority needed to block those funds. But if there is deadlock,
Mugabe could dissolve the assembly and rule by decree. It is unlikely the
opposition could summon the two-thirds vote needed to impeach Mugabe.
Meanwhile, there is a standoff in the negotiations over how Tsvangirai and
Mugabe would share power.
Tsvangirai beat Mugabe and two other candidates in presidential elections held
alongside the legislative balloting, but did not gain the simple majority
needed to avoid a runoff. Mugabe held a one-man runoff and declared himself
victor despite Western condemnation.
The opposition blames Zimbabwe's crisis on Mugabe's increasingly autocratic and
corrupt rule. Zimbabwe began unraveling after Mugabe ordered the often-violent
seizures of white-owned commercial farms for landless blacks. Instead, most
farms went to Cabinet ministers and generals who let the land lie fallow and
destroyed the country's economic base.
Mugabe has repeatedly blamed his country's woes on European and U.S. sanctions,
which he called illegal on Tuesday.
"Sanctions must go," he said, to cheers from his supporters. "They cannot last
a day longer if we as Zimbabweans speak against them in deafening unison." The
sanctions target people and companies linked to Mugabe with travel bans and
asset freezes.
While they are meant to spare ordinary Zimbabweans, already suffering from
chronic shortages of food, medication, electricity and water, Zimbabwean
officials say the sanctions help discourage foreign investment, loans and aid.
More than a third of Zimbabweans depend of foreign food aid but Mugabe has
barred charities for handing out the food, charging they were favoring
opposition supporters. Opposition legislators on Tuesday called on Mugabe to
honor his agreement to allow food to be distributed, signed as a prerequisite
for the power-sharing talks.
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