Hard-line Zimbabwe generals salute Tsvangirai

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean generals known as hard-line supporters of President Robert Mugabe saluted former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai Tuesday, a gesture welcomed as a public boost for the country’s struggling coalition government.

During presidential campaigning last year, generals vowed never to salute Tsvangirai, saying their loyalty was to Mugabe. But they showed Tsvangirai that mark of respect as he attended his first Armed Forces Day ceremony as prime minister.

Mugabe, who spoke at the ceremony, formed a unity government with Tsvangirai in February. Tsvangirai has complained that the coalition has been slow to enact promised political reforms and that his supporters are still subject to harassment, arrest and beatings. But Tsvangirai also has said he is committed to the awkward arrangement.

“The defense forces support the inclusive government, because it was born out of the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe whom the soldiers serve everyday in their course of duty,” Mugabe said in his speech Tuesday.

The service chiefs led by army commander Lt. Gen. Philip Sibanda and Air Force Commander Perence Shiri each greeted Tsvangirai, seated in the front row of the VIP tent next to retired army Gen. Solomon Mujuru. The military chiefs shook hands with Tsvangirai and then saluted him.

Late last month, Tsvangirai met with generals at the first of what are to be monthly national security consultations.

That meeting “broke the ice and now they are working together as they now recognize him,” Tsvangirai’s spokesman James Maridadi said later Tuesday. “This is why you saw some of the service chiefs saluting today. I hope this marks the beginning of a good working relationship.”

Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader, beat Mugabe in the first round of presidential voting last year. Tsvangirai then pulled out of a run-off against Mugabe because of violence against opposition supporters blamed on both police and soldiers. Under heavy international pressure, Tsvangirai and Mugabe entered a coalition in February, agreeing to work together to address their country’s economic and political crises.

Most of the country’s generals are veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war, which the 57-year-old Tsvangirai is too young to have fought. Mugabe, who is 85, has been in power since independence in 1980.

At Tuesday’s ceremony honoring the defense forces, Mugabe rejected accusations that soldiers had committed abuses, either during last year’s campaign and voting or more recently under the unity government. He lauded the military for keeping law and order.

“Allegations of gross abuses of human rights or failure to respect good governance have provided fodder for the West and its media,” said Mugabe, who remains commander in chief in the unity government. “The peace and stability have over the years angered our detractors as they have sought desperately and without good reason to find wrongdoing on our part as the defense forces.”

In July, Human Rights Watch that said Zimbabwean troops had killed more than 200 people at diamond fields in the east, forced children to search for diamonds and beat villagers who got in the way. Zimbabwe’s coalition government denied the allegations, saying the military was there to secure the area, about 150 miles (250 kilometers) east of Harare, where mining is managed by the state’s Mining Development Corp.

Mugabe repeated the denials Tuesday, saying soldiers “assisted in eradicating the illegal panning and illicit dealing activities in these precious mineral resource areas. Their work at the mine fields has helped a lot as they now have law and order in the diamond mines with legal miners doing proper mining work.”