SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Friday
ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe’s call for the country’s white settlers to face trial for genocide is a sign of his desperation in the face of growing tensions here, analysts said this week.
Mugabe said whites who had fought against independence fighters in the war of the 1970s would be put on trial for genocide, and a national reconciliation policy brought in at independence revoked.
His call came on the day the main opposition party started proceedings in parliament to impeach Mugabe for violating the constitution, following months of violence before and after elections in June.
Mugabe “is dead scared, frustrated, desperate – he is continuing with his lawlessness,” said John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe.
Mugabe told members of his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party that former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith and at least two opposition deputies would be amongst those brought to trial.
“The national reconciliation policy we adopted in 1980 is threatened, gravely threatened by the acts of the white settlers in this country and we shall revoke that national reconciliation, we will proceed to revoke it.
“Ian Smith and the whites who participated in the slaughter, massacre and genocide of our people, those who fought against us will stand trial,” Mugabe told cheering supporters Wednesday at party headquarters.
His call came amid mounting tension and riots in the country over price rises.
Mugabe has meanwhile accused whites of resisting stepped-up government attempts to seize some of their land.
One of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawmakers named by Mugabe as one of those who would face trial, David Coltart, said the threat spoke of a troubled leader.
“I see this as the actions of an embattled president who is just trying to play the race card,” Coltart said.
While some were of the opinion that Mugabe’s statement was mere rhetoric, others felt he was being serious.
“I think he means it, he is serious about it. He is angry, frightened, it’s not just empty rhetoric,” said Makumbe adding that Mugabe was addressing “a violent group of people and they take him seriously.” – AFP