As the politicalsituation in Zimbabwe worsens, many have called for a negotiated settlementbetween President Mugabe and the opposition MDC party. Reporter PetaThornycroft is following that story. From Harare, she spoke to VOA English toAfrica Service reporter Joe De Capua about the chances for a negotiatedpolitical solution.

Tendai Biti holds press conference in Johannesburg, 20 Apr 2008

"They would be quite good if, for example, thesecretary-general of the MDC, Tendai Biti, was released from detention. He'sactually in…the high court today in Harare stating his case of why he believeshe should be granted bail…. (MDC leader) Morgan Tsvangirai made it very cleartoday that no negotiations could take place while Tendai Biti remained indetention. So, that is the bottom line for the MDC," she says.

Biti faces treason charges. "He is charged withfour counts, including treason and subverting a constitutional government. Andhe maintains that the document on which he's charged was certainly not hiswork. He had not authored it and that the signature on it is fraudulent. It waspublished in the state-controlled press in the middle of April. He immediatelyresponded to that publication, saying he had not written it and he threatenedto sue them," she says.

There is precedent for someone in Biti'ssituation to be released on bail. before the 2002 presidential election, MorganTsvangirai was himself charged with treason and was released on bail.

Meanwhile, despite Tsvangirai's dropping out ofFriday's presidential run-off, the preparationscontinue. Thornycroft says,"Polling stations are being put up all over the country. There's something like9,200 polling stations…. Mr. (President) Mugabe has said that he has tocontinue with the selection to fulfill the legal requirements of the constitution.The Zimbabwe Election Commission, which analysts believe is entirely partisantoward (the ruling party) ZANU-PF, has said that it doesn't recognize theletter of withdrawal from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. We are informedby the state press on a daily basis there will be an election. What worries theMDC, what worries many analysts, is that people who have got the message thatTsvangirai has withdrawn will be forced out of their homes and into the pollingstations and forced to vote against their will and will be able to do nothingabout it."

Reporter Thornycroft says that would be moredifficult to do in urban areas than remote rural

Morgan-Tsvangirai

areas. "Many people in therural areas, especially those affected by the violence, have no idea thatMorgan Tsvangirai has withdrawn. There are no newspapers, no radio, notelevision, not even any transport in and out of those areas," she says. Shesays these areas are under an unofficial curfew maintained by ZANU-PF militiasand "war veterans."

Thornycroft says this week she did managed tospeak with women from rural areas of Zimbabwe. "On Tuesday evening, I wentaround to one of the clinics in Harare to check on the latest number of injuredpeople coming in from the rural areas. And I interviewed three women from twodifferent parts of the country, from the northeast and from the south. Allthree of them were badly injured. They have injuries to their buttocks and totheir feet. So they can neither sit down, nor can they walk. And they'reextremely gravely injured. And through their pain they told of how they'd beenbeaten by ZANU-PF in their villages, in their homes. But none of them knew thatMorgan Tsvangirai had pulled out of the election," she says.