U.S. President Barack Obama will meet
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai Friday in Washington. The two
leaders are expected to discuss what has been described as Harare's difficult
road ahead.
Washington has said it wants to see reforms to the rule of law and human rights in Zimbabwe before it resumes financial aid.
Early
this year, Tsvangirai, a former opposition leader, joined embattled President
Robert Mugabe in a unity government in a bid to resolve the country's political and
economic crisis.
"It
is very important that America supports Mr. Tsvangirai," says political analyst Rejoice Mbwenya. "So there is a lot of
expectation that perhaps for the first time he might come up with a plan that
can support his call for aid to Zimbabwe."
Mbwenya adds that some Zimbabweans
want international financial institutions to look more favorably on the unity
government's effort to revive the country's ailing economy.
"Usually the idea behind the
expectation is based on that the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the
World Bank are likely to be more amenable to looking at the Zimbabwe case," he
said.
Mbwenya says some people are hopeful Tsvangirai will make a convincing case to the U.S. president about the need for financial assistance. "They just hope that Mr.
Tsvangirai might be able to persuade President Obama to consider lifting the
sanctions that is imposed on Zimbabwe," Mbwenya said.
Mbwenya adds that the prime minister's
recent remarks about the progress of the unity government have been contradictory.
"Mr. Tsvangirai
unfortunately… sends conflicting signals because in one minute he will be
talking about how difficult it has been working with Mugabe…and in the next
sentence he will be talking about things looking up," he said.
Meanwhile,
in an interview with VOA's Zimbabwe Service, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
acknowledged the shortcomings of the unity government. He also expressed
hope that Harare's re-engagement with the West will yield positive results.