HARARE – A Zimbabwean conference to draw up a new constitution descended into chaos yesterday as riot police broke up clashes between rival delegates, underscoring the tensions within a unity government formed this year.
Police drove the delegates out of the venue and cordoned it off, while the prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his old rival President Robert Mugabe met to discuss the disruption.
The conference is part of a process which should lead to the adoption of a new national constitution and fresh elections in about two years. But the chaos reflected the divisions within the coalition government set up between President Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai in February to try to end political paralysis and reverse a decade of economic decline.
Zimbabweans hope a new charter, replacing one inked in 1979 before independence from Britain, will strengthen the role of parliament and curtail the president’s powers, as well as guaranteeing civil liberties and political and media freedom.
Trouble broke out between delegates from Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF during an opening statement by the speaker of parliament.
Riot police drove them out of the conference venue. The police also sealed off the venue, keeping delegates out despite earlier indications that the conference would continue.
The MDC accused some Zanu-PF lawmakers and officials of organising youths to disrupt the conference. “Judging by today’s events, Zanu-PF MPs and the party’s delegates were clearly reading from a script whose sole agenda is to derail the constitution-making process,” it said. When speaker of the lower house of assembly, Lovemore Moyo, from the MDC, got up to deliver his opening speech, he was drowned out by youths singing revolutionary songs and delegates heckling each other.
The youths were waving fists, a traditional symbol of Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and singing the veteran leader’s praises. The MDC’s Tendai Biti said his party would press on with the drive to write a new charter. – (Reuters)