Tsvangirai Blames Mugabe for Talks Deadlock

President Robert Mugabe’s unwillingness to share executive power caused talks to resolve Zimbabwe’s political crisis to collapse last week, Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said. Speaking in an interview on South Africa’s Talk Radio 702, Tsvangirai said Mugabe had insisted on retaining sole control of state security agencies, adding that the army and police were state institutions that could not be monopolized by one political party in a coalition government. Tsvangirai downplayed Mugabe's threat last week to form a cabinet without the opposition, saying such a cabinet would be dysfunctional without the mandate of the Zimbabwean people and would lack the confidence of the international community. Tsvangirai refused to sign a deal that would have made him prime minister in a Mugabe-led coalition administration last week, saying he had not been given substantial executive authority. [PE]