By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki metZimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday to try to helpend a political crisis after a violent election that extendedMugabe's 28-year rule.
The main opposition party, the Movement for DemocraticChange (MDC), said its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had declined tomeet Mbeki, who has tried to mediate between the two sides.
Tsvangirai and his MDC have criticised Mbeki's mediationefforts, accusing him of siding with Mugabe and have asked theAfrican Union to send an envoy to help with the talks.
Mugabe, in power since 1980, says he supports Mbeki's rolein the mediation but has remained defiant in the face ofgrowing condemnation from Western governments and even Africanneighbours after his disputed re-election on June 27.
"It is the view of the facilitators and the Zimbabweanleadership that we need to move with speed," Mbeki toldreporters after a brief meeting with Mugabe and ArthurMutambara, who leads a breakaway faction of the MDC.
"We agreed that MDC Tsvangirai has to be part of thenegotiations, so we are hoping that the process will take placewith them."
Mugabe said on Friday the MDC must drop its claim to powerand accept he was the rightful head of state. He saidZimbabwe's crisis, which has ruined the economy and sentmillions of refugees into neighbouring states, must be settledinternally.
A spokesman for Tsvangirai's MDC, Nelson Chamisa, said theparty was "mandated to negotiate under the resolutions of theAfrica Union and the Southern Africa Development Community ...on the basis that there is accountability (and) transparency."
"If we were meeting Mugabe as head of (the ruling party)ZANU-PF no problem but not as head of state because we wouldhave endorsed him but you know that his position is indispute," Chimasa said.
VOTE RIGGING
Mbeki's trip follows a June 27 runoff election, in whichMugabe was the only candidate after Tsvangirai pulled outciting state-sponsored violence against MDC candidates andsupporters.
"We will of course engage the AU (African Union) and I amquite certain that they will make their own contribution tomove the process forward," said Mbeki.
A White House official said on Saturday that Zimbabwe wascertain to come up at the Group of Eight summit in Japan onJuly 7-9, which will also be attended by the heads of sevenAfrican states.
"I think the G8 will strongly condemn what Mugabe hasdone," Dennis Wilder, a senior National Security Councilofficial, told reporters aboard Air Force One as PresidentGeorge W. Bush was on his way to Japan.
"It will strongly condemn the legitimacy of his governmentand his governing of Zimbabwe."
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who leads the ZANU-PFnegotiating team, criticised Tsvangirai for failing to attendSaturday's meeting, accusing him of behaving like a rebel.
"I think that what is becoming clear is that if the countryis not careful it will be precipitated into a period ofinstability," Chinamasa told state television.
A film secretly taken by a Zimbabwe prison guard andsmuggled out of the country shows rigging that took place forthe June 27 run-off vote, the Guardian newspaper said onSaturday.
The film taken by Shepherd Yuda using a camera supplied bythe Guardian showed prison staff being told by a war veteranhow to fill in their ballot papers for Mugabe.
(Editing by Phumza Macanda, Ibon Villelabeitia and JohnO'Callaghan)
