In Zimbabwe, tensions ease, but shortages remain widespread

HARARE, Zimbabwe - The soldiers shoved their way to the front of the winding line waiting to get cash at the bank. But this time was different: The military men were jeered, told "things have changed," and were forced to take a place at the back.

Already, Zimbabweans say, they can feel change.

President Robert Mugabe signed a power-sharing deal Monday with his bitter opposition rival, an accord that promises to return democracy to a weary nation beaten up and beaten down by political violence and economic collapse.

While the signing ceremony was going on, a group of militant Mugabe party supporters barged into a downtown supermarket and demanded a new delivery of scarce sugar. Before, they would have got what they wanted.

Instead, witnesses said the supermarket manager told the gang - including feared veterans of the war that swept Mugabe to power at independence in 1980 - that they could only have two, 2-kilogram (4.4 pound) bags each and that they had to wait in line with everyone else.

When they balked, he called police, who got them to leave.

Witnesses said an officer was overheard saying: "Forget it. Everyone has the same allocation now."

Just the day before, the police probably would have refused to confront the militants. But the witnesses still did not want to be named, fearing retaliation from the war veterans.

Zimbabweans, wary but hopeful, were trying this week to figure out the intricacies of the deal that has the country's ruler for 28 years, President Robert Mugabe, relinquishing some power to bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe, 84, went from being praised as a liberator who freed the former British colony from minority white rule to being vilified as an autocrat. He and Tsvangirai, 56, have been enemies for a decade, and Tsvangirai has been jailed, beaten, tortured and tried for treason - charges that were dismissed in court.

The men's parties have yet to decide how to divide up portfolios for the Cabinet, where Mugabe's party has 15 ministers, Tsvangirai's 13 and a breakaway opposition faction led by Arthur Mutambara has three.

But the government-controlled Herald newspaper said yesterday that key aspects of the power-sharing deal won't go into effect until next month.

Continued political delay means only more time before economic problems can be addressed. A resurgence of political violence, though, seemed unlikely. The country has been largely calm since June, and Mugabe and his rivals have said they want the agreement to work and the country to move forward.

Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, said the wait was tense.

"Clearly there is anxiety in the country," Chamisa said. "People would want to see movement in terms of the realization of the actual deal. As the MDC, we want to urgently respond to the desperate and dire situation Zimbabweans find themselves in."

Monday's agreement commits the parties to ensuring the police and military are "impartial in the discharge of their duties."

Both forces, along with war veterans and other Mugabe party militants, are blamed for violence around elections this year that killed more than 100 opposition supporters, left thousands with broken limbs from beatings and drove tens of thousands from their homes.

"It's almost like the old days. I don't feel threatened," said Ali Paraje, a mineworker visiting his family in the capital. "It's a start. Let's see how it works out, but it's good, and it's very good for my first born," he said, holding the hand of his 4-year-old son.

But an easing of repression will not put food on the table in Zimbabwe, which has been embroiled in political and economic turmoil since the seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000. The seizures are blamed for destroying the economy in this former regional breadbasket.