US official denies giving support to opposition

A senior US official on Saturday denied that she had expressed support for Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, as claimed by its leader, agencies reported. Susan Rice, the US assistant secretary of state for Africa, left Zimbabwe for Kenya on Saturday, after a four-day visit.

Rice met a wide range of Zimbabweans, including the opposition leader - Morgan Tsvangirai - to discuss the economy, land reform, the HIV epidemic, the Congo war and the growth of multiparty democracy in Zimbabwe, a statement from the US embassy said.
Tsvangirai, the head of the Movement for Democratic Change, said in an e-mail distributed to journalists that Rice had told him “the US government was keen to assist the MDC in restoring freedom and democracy and endorsed the need for added pressure on the government to ensure that law and order resumed throughout the country”.

Rice, however, said Tsvangirai “mis-characterised the substance of their discussion”, according to a statement from the embassy. “At no time did she express support for any particular political party, nor did she call for pressure to be applied by or to any party,” the statement said. Rice had requested a meeting with President Robert Mugabe, but the two never met. Mugabe left Zimbabwe on Thursday on a four-day visit to Malaysia.