Posted on 12/14/2002 1:30:36 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe called on Western powers to leave his embattled government alone Friday, warning he would respond to pressure by ratcheting up hostility toward whites in the country.
Opening the annual conference of his ruling ZANU-PF party, the 78-year-old Mugabe vowed to fight on -- particularly against former colonial power Britain, which he said had become "the enemy" under Prime Minister Tony.
"Leave us alone to run our affairs," Mugabe said. "Leave us alone to run our lives. We don't interfere in the affairs of Britain and no one should interfere in our own affairs."
If Britain's allies want to make Zimbabwe their own issue, Mugabe said, "we will recognize them as enemies like we recognize Britain, under Mr. Blair, as an enemy of Zimbabwe.
"The more they work against us, the more they express their hostility against us, the more negative we shall become to their kith and kin here."
Mugabe, whose country has plunged into economic crisis in part due to his policy of seizing white-owned farmland, ruled out forming a government of national unity with main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), calling it a British puppet created to undermine his land reform program.
Mugabe's government has ordered almost 3,000 of the country's remaining 4,500 white commercial farmers to hand their farms over to landless blacks to help correct colonial injustice which left 70 percent of the best farmland in the former Rhodesia in white hands.
Mugabe said Zimbabwe's white farmers had committed the "unforgivable sin" of supporting the MDC. "We started treating them as enemies of our government and the enemies of our people...and so we shall continue," he said.
But the Zimbabwean leader also said he would lead an audit of the land reform program next year to sort out ownership disputes amid reports some officials had grabbed many farms.
"In the meantime, I appeal to you that don't fight among yourselves because we will ensure fairness," he said.
"WHERE WAS DEMOCRACY?"
After Mugabe's speech and solidarity messages from party allies, the conference went into a closed session and officials said the closing ceremony was likely to be brought forward to Saturday from Sunday to give delegates time to return home.
Mugabe avoided any specific reference to Zimbabwe's crumbling economy and a fuel shortage that has almost brought the country to a standstill.
Instead, the former guerrilla leader used his speech to slam domestic and Western critics, who have accused him of increasing political abuses during his 22 years in power.
"We don't accept this cover that people are fighting for democracy and human rights when they are trying to deprive us of our land, of our rights," Mugabe said. "Where was democracy when we were being colonized, where was democracy and human rights when our land was being seized?
The party conference in the northwestern town of Chinhoyi, 70 miles from the capital Harare, comes as fuel pumps run dry and food shortages affect nearly half of the 14 million people in what used to be southern Africa's breadbasket.
Mugabe has blamed the crisis on economic sabotage by local and international opponents in retaliation for the land reforms. 
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe speaks to the Congress of the ruling ZANU (PF) party in Chinoyi, northwest of Harare, December 13, 2002. Mugabe called on western powers to leave his embattled government alone and to stay out of his fight with Britain. Photo by Howard Burditt/Reut
Friday, before an audience of some 3,000 ZANU-PF delegates who danced, ululated and waved the party's traditional clenched fist salute, Mugabe said Zimbabwe would continue to plot its own course despite international pressure.
"It doesn't matter how strong they may be. Zimbabwe is our land. This is the only heritage we have, and here we shall live and here we shall die," Mugabe said.
For them, guess he was jus' plain folks or something.
Pressure on Mugabe should arrive in the form of the detonation wave from 500kg of high explosives delivered within 3 meters by a laser-guided munition.
That last bit can easily be arranged.
*GAG* *sputter*
Robert Mugabe has been murdering his own people, threatens a powerless minority with physical harm and is starving 6.5 million people--but the liberals celebrate him and the media is silent.
The inmates are in charge of the asylum.
This libertarian wholeheartedly agrees. Nonintervention and non-initiation of force only apply when another isn't harming others. I freely predict millions will starve in the coming years. He needs a JDAM and needs it now.
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