Mugabe tells West to 'go hang'

01/07/2008| IslamWeb

Robert Mugabe's spokesman told the West on Tuesday it can "go hang" over its criticism of the Zimbabwean president's widely discredited reelection which has seen Washington push for UN sanctions.

"They can go and hang a thousand times, they have no basis, they have no claim on Zimbabwe politics at all," spokesman George Charamba said in answer to a question about Western criticism of Mugabe's violence-marred election.

 

Charamba also appeared to reject a Kenyan-style power-sharing deal.

 

"I don't know what power-sharing is," Charamba said. "Kenya is Kenya, Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe."

 

The 53-member African Union was holding closed-door talks on the final day of a summit in Egypt amid intensifying pressure for the continent's leaders to act to resolve the crisis which some fear could destabilise southern Africa.

 

Mugabe, 84, was sworn in for a sixth term after being declared the winner of Friday's election runoff with more than 85 percent of the vote in a race boycotted by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change because of deadly violence and voter intimidation.

 

Amid South African-led efforts to broker a way out of the crisis, Charamba said "there are two political parties in Zimbabwe that are prepared to discuss -- we are talking about a ruling party that has offered dialogue to the opposition."

 

But "we are not promising (Tsvangirai) anything beyond what will emerge from the discussions."

 

But the opposition number two, MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti said that Mugabe's holding of a one-man election killed off any prospect of a negotiated political settlement, denying any current negotiations.

 

"While the MDC has pursued dialogue in a bid to establish a government of national healing before June 4, the sham election on June 27, 2008, totally and completely exterminated any prospect of a negotiated settlement," Biti said in a statement.

 

Morgan TsvangiraiMugabe Following Charamba's "hang" comment, Tsvangirai told AFP by telephone that "we don't respond to this sort of thing ... This man is mad."

 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pledged to work to broker a solution, repeating his view that the one-man election that gave veteran incumbent Mugabe another term lacked legitimacy.

 

Zimbabweans should be able to "enjoy genuine freedom" so they can "choose their leaders out of their own will without being intimidated," Ban said. "You have my full commitment that I will spare no efforts to work out a solution."

 

Some African leaders have demanded tough action against Mugabe. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga called for his suspension from the African Union until he allows a free and fair election.

 

But Charamba dismissed Odinga's criticism, saying his "hands drip with blood, raw African blood, and that blood is not going to be cleansed by any amount of abuse of Zimbabwe."

 

He said that criticism of violence during the election was simply "a Western perspective."

 

Washington announced on Monday that it was preparing to present a draft sanctions resolution to the UN Security Council and urged African leaders to listen to their own election observers.

 

"The vote fell short of the African Union's standards of democratic elections," the AU observers said in a statement issued in Harare on Monday.

 

US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the sanctions should impress upon Harare's neighbours the need for urgent action at the regional level.

 

"We would certainly expect that the AU would call for a halt to the violence, a halt to this process and for Mugabe and others in his regime to engage some discussions," Casey said on Monday.

 

Without making any reference to the United States, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said on Monday that "sanctions are not the best tool that modern diplomacy has at its disposal."

 

With no consensus among the AU states on tough action against Mugabe, the bloc had focused its efforts on pushing for a power-sharing arrangement between his ZANU-PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change.

 

A senior AU official who asked not to be named said that some African leaders were in a tricky spot as any criticism of Mugabe could be seen as hypocritical.

 

"The basic problem is the heads of state: some of them were not properly elected, others are near the end of their mandate," the official said.

 

"They don't want to create a precedent or make a statement that they could be reminded of if they find themselves in the same situation as Mugabe."

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION:

Mugabe

 

 

AFP