ZIMBABWE?S official daily newspaper says British gay activist Peter Tatchell, who was beaten by security guards while trying to ”arrest” President Robert Mugabe in Belgium, was lucky not to have been ”shot like a dog”.
The Herald said Tatchell of the British gay rights group Outrage, who was knocked to the ground by the president’s bodyguards in Belgium on Monday as he tried to make a citizen’s arrest over Mugabe’s human rights record, was a ”gay gangster” whose behaviour represented the Western world’s extreme contempt for African leaders.
Tatchell, who previously tried to ”arrest” Mugabe in October 1999 during a private visit to London, yelled ”Arrest Mugabe, arrest the torturer” as the veteran African leader left the Hilton Hotel in Brussels.
The 77-year-old Mugabe, in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980, has denounced homosexuals as ”worse than dogs and pigs”.
The Herald applauded Mugabe’s bodyguards for assaulting Tatchell, but said his Belgian hosts should have ensured that no one threatening the president was allowed near him.
”Tatchell was so naive that he did not think that such action could cost him his life and should be thankful that the president’s security men did not shoot him down like a dog,” it said in commentary.
”The severe beating meted out on Tatchell is a good signal that restores national pride and sends a clear message to the world that never again shall we stand by while our president is treated like dirt and reviled like a criminal or military leader,” the newspaper said.
Mugabe’s opponents and critics have condemned France and Belgium for hosting the Zimbabwean president this week, saying they were undermining international attempts led by Britain to isolate the veteran leader.
They said the world must take a tough line with Mugabe over escalating repression of Zimbabwe’s press and judiciary. – Reuters