Sharing power with Mugabe may be only option

Some say it would only prolong Zimbabwe's agony, while others see a coalition--perhaps with Mugabe as president and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister or vice president--as the only way to lead the nation out of the impasse and begin reversing its economic collapse.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, appointed by the main regional bloc to mediate between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, has said some form of coalition is the goal of talks that got off to a tentative start in South Africa on July 10.

On Friday, the opposition applauded plans announced for Mbeki to work closely with the U.N. and the African Union as he attempts to mediate, saying that this satisfies its demand that Mbeki be joined by another mediator. The opposition had accused Mbeki of favoring Mugabe.

George Sibotshiwe, a spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, said Friday's announcement could open the way to agreement in coming days on a framework for power-sharing talks.

A partnership with Mugabe may be the best hope remaining for Tsvangirai's party.

Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party remain adamant that he is Zimbabwe's duly elected leader, even if most of the rest of the world says a June 27 runoff in which he claimed overwhelming victory over Tsvangirai was a sham.

More ominously, Mugabe's military chiefs say their allegiance is only to Mugabe.

Any dramatic intervention by the outside world looks unlikely. On July 11 Russia and China delivered a rare twin veto of a U.S.-sponsored U.N. Security Council resolution that would have imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his top aides. The aim was to punish them for allegedly overseeing political violence and fraud, and to force them to negotiate.

ZANU-PF has said it's open to power-sharing--as long as Mugabe heads any coalition. The opposition says publicly it's open to what it calls a "government of national healing," but only with moderate ZANU-PF members, not Mugabe.