A faction of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change on Thursday asked the member nations of the Southern African Development Community, now in summit in Zambia, to expand the scope of South African mediated crisis talks.
A delegation led by Thokozani Khupe, vice president of the opposition faction headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, distributed the letters to the embassies of the SADC member nations in Lusaka early Thursday shortly before the summit's opening session.
The MDC faction called for the crisis talks being mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki to be concluded by October. It urged the repeal of Zimbabwe's Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and demanded an end to what it described as state-organized political violence.
Khupe told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the faction respects Mr. Mbeki's mediation process but believes it must be accelerated.
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