Tsvangirai denies running Mugabe's errands

WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has vehemently denied that he was sent by President Robert Mugabe to beg the West to remove sanctions imposed against him and his top lieutenants by countries in the European Union and the United States of America.Speaking in an interview as he prepared to leave the United States where he met President Barack Obama and senior Senate and Congress leaders, Tsvangirai said reports emanating from Harare that he was tasked by Mugabe to come and seek the removal of the targeted sanctions were far from the truth.

“I was not sent by anyone, it was my own initiative,” he said. “I told the President that it was time to reengage with the rest of the world following a cabinet resolution on reengaging the EU and other western countries. I took the initiative – I would have stayed at home, no-one would have sent me so I think it’s just a myth cultivated to promote a certain position which is not the objective of the inclusive government.”

The Prime Minister said the problem with some elements in Zanu-PF was that when they think of the biting targeted sanctions against them they think that I am the one responsible for them being put in place in the first place.

“The sanctions came because of the gross human rights situation in our country – the killings, the torture, the wanton destruction of people’s properties, the violence – they know that the violence – we cannot go back there now – but the world could not just sit and watch people being killed and maimed. Did they expect the world to applaud them.

Yes we have the issue of the sanctions or restrictions but when there is no rule of law and people’s rights are being trampled on, the whole world cannot just watch.”

On being only the second African leader to meet Obama, who gave him a book written by Martin Luther King Jnr, Stride Toward Freedom, Tsvangirai said: “It was quite a profound experience, we had talked over the phone but we had never really met so as we met I think there was a degree of convergence and I think the discussion was very productive, it was very informative about where the United States stands and what we need to do as a country in order to earn the full confidence of the international community.”

He said the objective of his trips abroad were two-fold, the first being to seek re-engagement after Zimbabwe’s 10 years of isolation.

“Yes one of the reasons was to try and seek transitional support apart from just humanitarian support and we set to do and the American government has made a commitment – over 75 million dollars committed to the short-term transitional support until there is definitive progress on a number of issues.”

Tsvangirai said the overall objectives of his trip had been met though the initial meetings were very tough with many being skeptical about the current political arrangement in Harare.

He later addressed a meeting organized by the MDC in Virginia. He took questions from skeptical Zimbabweans whom he urged to come back home and help rebuild the country.

One asked how Zimbabweans in the Diaspora could trust the unity government when Zanu-PF was not even committed to fulfilling the conditions of the GPA.

Tsvangirai, tried to assure the skeptical audience, and even told them he had refused to eat with Mugabe on the first night they had a meeting together. He said the acrimony between him and Mugabe was legendary – ‘ as you know, he would call me Chematama and say namai vangu vaBona hazviite and all sorts of things and I would say, “Kamudhara aka kasingadi kusiya power, kauraya nyika (this old man does not want to step down from office yet he has ruined the country)” and all that.

“That is legendary and you all know it and the scars I have sustained in the process but we have both realized that acrimony does not bring food onto the tables of Zimbabweans, medicines, education and all so it is now all in the past and we are all committed to working towards a better Zimbabwe”.

Tsvangirai told his audience that Mugabe laments to him that his politburo was saying that he had sold out. He said he had told the President that he too was being subjected to accusations of selling out.

“So we have a position where we are being blamed by our parties for this inclusive government so I said then it means we have both sold out. But everyone in Zimbabwe knows that this inclusive government is the only way we can get to set our country back on the right track again and we need the Diaspora support to do that.

“You are very important to us – like the Ghanaians who send billions back home every year – we expect to come up with programs to see how best we can harness such resources through the estimated four million of you living in the Diaspora so you can all play a part in rebuilding Zimbabwe because I know, some of you came here single and are now married, have children and are not ready to go back. But we want many of you to ride on the train with us because you risk being left behind because things are changing in Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe will never be the same again.”

He assured the dual citizenship problem had been resolved through Amendment Number 18 so no-one would be asked to renounce their Zimbabwean citizen once they became citizens of their new chosen countries.

Tsvangirai has since been to German where he was given full military honours. He is now in Sweden and goes to Norway tomorrow evening. He is expected to visit Denmark, Brussels, France and Britain before going back home.