Posted on 08/25/2002 1:27:31 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Thursday denounced US and other western criticism of his government as a racist campaign to undermine his nation's independence.
"Today, Britain, America, New Zealand and Australia, what colour are they, most of the people there? White," Mugabe said in a speech in southern Zimbabwe, quoted on national television.
"They are the ones leading in the fight against Zimbabwe, the fight of resisting the completion of the independence process that began in 1980," Mugabe said.
"We are not made as a government in Washington. Let Mr Bush know that. We are made as the government by our people here. Let foolish Blair also know that," he said.
The remarks came two days after senior US officials said the United States did not consider Mugabe the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe and that Washington was working with other governments to try to isolate him.
Mugabe's regime has become increasingly isolated since the March presidential elections, which independent and foreign observers condemned as severely flawed, citing widespread claims of vote fraud and violence against opposition supporters.
US President George Bush's administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have spearheaded criticism of Mugabe, in particular his land reforms which they say are worsening already severe food shortages.
The government has ordered 2 900 white farmers to leave their land which is to be handed over to landless blacks but many have ignored the order. Some 215 white farmers had been arrested and many others are said to have taken flight.
The two State Department officials said in Washington on Tuesday that Mugabe's policies amounted to "madness" because they were exacerbating the country's drought and threatening six million Zimbabweans with famine.
"We do not see President Mugabe as the democratically legitimate leader of the country," said Walter Kansteiner, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, the State Department's top adviser on Africa. "The election was fraudulent and it was not free and it was not fair."
"So we're working with others ... on how we can in fact together encourage the body politic of Zimbabwe to in fact go forward and correct that situation and start providing an environment that would lead to a free and fair election," Kansteiner said.
He said the United States was working with opposition elements within Zimbabwe as well as with the country's neighbors and the European Union to further isolate the Mugabe regime.
Andrew Natsios, head of the US Agency for International Development (USAid), said Mugabe -- who has continued to evict white commercial farmers from their property and arrest those who refuse to leave despite a massive drought and food shortages -- was condoning a "disgusting" land grab.
Most western nations have slapped sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle, while the Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe from its council meetings.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday he agreed with Australian Prime Minister John Howard that the Commonwealth had to take a tough stance on the chaotic situation in Zimbabwe.
"I agree with Mr Howard that the troika of the Commonwealth needs to address the present state of affairs in Zimbabwe," said Mbeki as he received the credentials of the incoming Australian High Commissioner Ian Wilcock, along with other new ambassadors, in Pretoria.
Howard and his New Zealand counterpart Helen Clark agreed at the weekend that the situation in Zimbabwe was "very unsatisfactory."
"We're extremely unhappy, there's been no response and I am giving some thought right at the moment to some further action in relation to Zimbabwe," Howard told journalists, declining to go into detail.
Howard heads a Commonwealth troika, which includes Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, that is tasked with taking action on Zimbabwe following the controversial elections and the violence-wracked land redistribution programme.
South Africa's foreign ministry on Thursday morning urged Zimbabwe to respect the rule of law in dealing with land reform.
"South Africa is of the view that the land question remains at the heart of Zimbabwe's economic and political problems but that the redistribution should take place within the rule of law," foreign ministry representative Ronnie Mamoepa said in a statement. - Sapa-AFP
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First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.
-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--
ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe
... Books & Videos. Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power
In Zimbabwe This book tells the story of Zimbabwe from the hopeful era of ...
MPR Books - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ...
Title: "Cry, the Beloved Country" - Topics: World/South Africa
LOL!
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, Moogabooga.
In America we've got trolls living under bridges, begging for spare change during the day and sleeping in a pile of dirty newspapers at night who are better suited to execute the duties of jungle strongman than you are.
When your 'peoples' get around to killing you they will eat you too...
After that, we all have to go take antiracism classes. After we truly admit our guilt, maybe--just maybe--Mugabe will allow us to stop by so we can cry painful tears as we apologize in person. Mugabe might even let us join him in a round of "Kumbaya" if we're lucky, but he certainly would have every right to treat as like dirt, considering how we've oppressed him.
What's that? You say political correctness died last September 11th?
Well in that case, Mugabe is a modern day Stalin who is destroying his country and patethically using the race card to cling to power. May someone kill him soon.
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