Mugabe lashes out at 'toilet Blair'
Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe lashed out at Commonwealth nations today, repeating threats to pull Zimbabwe out of the organisation and accusing his critics of meddling in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs.
Speaking at the opening of his ZANU-PF party’s annual conference in the southern town of Masvingo, Mugabe defended his government’s seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to impoverished blacks.
Banners displayed inside a giant tent set up on college grounds for the ZANU-PF congress attacked Tony Blair, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon – among Zimbabwe’s most outspoken critics.
“Blair the toilet, Howard the coward, McKinnon the liar,” declared one. “To hell with the racist white Commonwealth,” read another.
Mugabe, in a speech broadcast on state television, told the 3,000 delegates: “Zimbabwe is a free and independent country that cannot brook interference with its sovereignty.
“If the choice was made for us … to remain with our sovereignty and lose membership of the Commonwealth, then I would say then let the Commonwealth go,” he said. “What is to us? It is a club. There are other clubs we can join.”
Zimbabwe was suspended from the 54-member Commonwealth’s policy-making councils after disputed presidential elections last year, which independent observers said were marred by intimidation and vote-rigging.
Despite pressure by African countries like Zambia and Malawi to readmit Zimbabwe, Mugabe was not invited to attend the Commonwealth heads of state meeting that began today in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst political and economic crisis, with rampant inflation and acute shortages of food, petrol and other essentials.
The often-violent seizures of white-owned farms, coupled with erratic weather, have crippled the agriculture-based economy.
Mugabe, however, argued the land had been returned to its rightful owners.
“Our people are overjoyed, the land is ours,” Mugabe said. “We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe.”
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, also warned his political and union opponents against trying to “destabilise” the nation through strikes and anti-government demonstrations.
“The police and security forces have remained completely alert and most loyal,” he said. “Anyone wishing to destabilise Zimbabwe, take care. We can unleash these forces on him. We can unleash legal force and violence which we are permitted to do.”
Mugabe, 79, faces pressure by opposition leaders and reformers within his own party to name a successor. But party officials have said the matter will not be discussed at the three-day conference in Masvingo, 190 miles south of the capital, Harare.
