The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Tuesday the U.S. and Britain are "stupid" to think he shouldn't be part of a unity government.
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa said over the weekend that Washington can no longer support a power-sharing proposal that leaves Mugabe president, and Britain's Africa minister backed the U.S. stance on Monday.
"This stupid and foolish thinking" ignores that only Zimbabweans can make such a decision, Mugabe said at a funeral for a retired army general who had fought British rule in Zimbabwe.
"We are not going to listen to what (President George W.) Bush and (British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown are saying," Mugabe said. "We do realize that these are the last kicks of a dying horse."
Mugabe, 84, has ruled the country since its 1980 independence from Britain and refused to leave office following disputed elections in March.
He has faced renewed criticism because of a humanitarian crisis that has pushed millions of Zimbabweans to the point of starvation and spawned a cholera epidemic that UNICEF's representative in Zimbabwe said Tuesday had killed 1,174 people and may take six months to control. Roeland Monasch, briefing reporters in Geneva via telephone from Harare, added cholera has spread to all 10 Zimbabwean provinces and that 5 percent of cases are fatal — an unusually high rate.
Food, medicine, fuel and cash are scarce in Zimbabwe.
Critics blame Mugabe's policies for the ruin of what had been the region's breadbasket. Mugabe blames Western sanctions, though the European Union and U.S. sanctions are targeted only at Mugabe and dozens of his clique with frozen bank accounts and travel bans.
The recent U.S. and British comments appear aimed more at Mugabe's neighbors than Mugabe himself, in hopes they will pressure the longtime Zimbabwean leader.
But Mugabe's counterparts on the continent are wary of being seen as simply following the West. Mugabe has drawn African support with claims he is fighting Western imperialists.
"Zimbabwe's fate lies in the hands of Zimbabweans," Mugabe said Tuesday. "It is the various political parties and the people of Zimbabwe ... who make and unmake governments. It is there decision alone that we go by."
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change agreed in September to form a unity government with Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai in the new post of prime minister. The deal, though, has stalled in a dispute over which party would control key Cabinet posts.
The Movement for Democratic Change says it remains committed to talks aimed at making the deal a reality, but also has threatened to withdraw unless political detainees are released or charged by Jan. 1.
When the power-sharing agreement was announced, the U.S. offered to lift sanctions and help Zimbabwe re-negotiate relations with international lenders if the deal were implemented.
Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Sunday those offers were no longer on the table, robbing the deal's proponents of important leverage.
