Zimbabwe: Mugabe takes sharp dig at Tsvangirai

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — President Robert Mugabe took a sharp dig at his estranged governing partner Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday, but said they were still allies in Zimbabwe's troubled coalition.

Speaking Saturday at the state funeral of a former guerrilla leader who fought for independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe, speaking of Tsvangirai's temporary withdrawal from the Cabinet, said: "Even if some person is not mentally stable he is still your partner.

"We bound ourselves to work together even though we had disparate positions. We will continue talking, no matter what," Mugabe told mourners at the Heroes Acre cemetery west of the capital as Mischek Chando was buried. The 85-year-old leader wore his trademark tailored suit and dark sunglasses for the occasion.

Mugabe said his ZANU-PF party and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change had taken "positive steps" despite having faced difficulties.

"There can be disagreement but that's ours to handle," he said. "We are glad we are talking about it.

"On an odd day, one party decides it should not be fully in the process. It has one leg in, and one leg out and you begin to wonder if you are with people who know what agreement means," Mugabe added. He spoke mostly in Shona, and in the fiery terms typical of such occasions.

Tsvangirai said it was Mugabe, in power since independence and seen as increasingly autocratic, who has failed to live up to their power-sharing agreement. He withdrew from Cabinet on Oct. 16, accusing Mugabe of trampling on human rights, and said he would only return when confidence in the unity government was restored.

On Friday, foreign ministers from Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia — members of the Southern African Development Community that pushed Mugabe and Tsvangirai to share power — met separately with the two to try to heal the split in the government. After the meetings, they said they would recommend to their heads of state that a summit be convened, a move for which Tsvangirai has pushed. They did not say where or when.

At a meeting in Berlin on Monday, key international donors urged Zimbabwe's factions to end the current crisis and echoed some of the concerns raised by Tsvangirai. The donors said Zimbabwe had made progress since the unity government was formed in February, but political and humanitarian problems not only undermined its ability "to deliver the change which ordinary Zimbabweans expect, but also deters much-needed foreign investment and hampers Zimbabwe's capacity to fully re-engage with the international community."