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JK: Talks on Z`bar will end well
2007-08-15 08:48:01
By Guardian Reporter
President Jakaya Kikwete has said the stalled talks between his ruling CCM and the opposition Civic United Front on the political situation in Zanzibar will come to an amicable conclusion.
`The talks are still on the right track. It is true that they have stalled but I would like to assure the public that the parties concerned will resolve the impasse over the differences in a friendly manner,` said Kikwete in an official statement issued by State House in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
The President`s remarks come only days after CUF national chairman Ibrahim Lipumba accused CCM of dilly-dallying on the protracted talks, officially due to end today.
The peace talks are popularly known as Muafaka and have been characterised by controversy and heated exchanges even outside the secret venues where they have been held.
They revolve around the political crisis that has plagued the Isles since the 1995 general elections that saw CCM register a landslide, as CUF cried foul.
President Kikwete, who doubles as CCM`s national chairman, said the joint negotiation committee has held 12 meetings since the talks started in January this year.
The two parties` secretaries general had also met twice to discuss issues deemed especially hard for the committee to deal with conclusively, he noted, adding: `There has been encouraging progress in the talks because there are a number of issues on which agreement has been reached.`
The President explained that agreement had been reached on three of the five items of the joint committee`s agenda, which he cited as equity and rights in politics, issues relating to how the Zanzibar government conducted its affairs, ways to strengthen political understanding in the Isles, and the need for free and fair elections.
There was partial agreement on the issue of the Zanzibar General Elections of October 30, 2005, he said.
One of the items on which headway was yet to be made is in connection with the modalities of creating conditions that would allow political parties in Zanzibar, specifically CUF and CCM, to work together in a peaceful and calm environment.
`Negotiations on this particular item have taken long to conclude and the two parties are yet to agree. I think it is because of the sensitive nature of the issue in question,` President Kikwete pointed out.
`But I think we have not reached a stage where we could justifiably say that the talks have collapsed.
We definitely need to negotiate more in order to resolve the matter, with each party working hard enough on its arguments to make the other see sense in reaching an amicable conclusion,` he added.
He then appealed specifically to CUF members `not to detach from these negotiations but instead plan to participate fully in the discussions until the matter is resolved`.
The President said the talks between CUF and CCM were being held largely thanks to the public assurance he gave in his inaugural address to the National Assembly in Dodoma on December 30, 2005 that he would do the most he could to end the political deadlock in Zanzibar.
He said he promised to take appropriate action to resolve the impasse `believing that there were neither political nor social differences in the country that could not be resolved through talks`.
It is true that any negotiation must ultimately come to an end, he stated, but added that in our particular case this should result from agreement by both sides that are party to the talks.
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