Harare | Monday
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe vowed to crack down on the opposition on Sunday, describing them as ”terrorists” sponsored by the British government.
In an emotional speech during the state funeral of a murdered ruling party militant whose death he blamed on opposition activists, Mugabe issued a warning to Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe.
”Let it be heard in the tall towers of London, in their tall towers elsewhere . . we shall never, ever brook (tolerate) attempts to subject us directly or indirectly to colonial rule,” Mugabe said.
In his comments, Mugabe, known for making inflammatory statements, appeared to be making reference to the September 11 attacks on the United States.
In London, a British Foreign Office representative speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said that any suggestion that Britain was supporting any kind of terrorism was ”absurd.”
The representative said Britain has helped fund the Zimbabwean opposition, specifically through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, a government body set up in 1992 to support democracy around the world.
Zimbabwe’s farming districts have been convulsed by chaos over the past 18 months, when ruling party militants began occupations of 1 700 white-owned farms, demanding they be redistributed to landless blacks.
The government has since embarked on a plan to seize 5 000 farms – nearly all the farms owned by whites – without paying compensation.
Opposition officials accuse the government of using land seizures to garner support and intimidate opponents ahead of presidential elections scheduled for next year.
The opposition is running on a platform of open and accountable government and its supporters range from black power activists to conservative whites. It has an especially large following among urban educated black Zimbabweans.
Bracing for possible violence, the streets of the capital city of Harare were filled with hundreds of paramilitary officers with rifles and machine guns on Sunday.
In his speech, Mugabe said that activists for the Movement for Democratic Change were responsible for the Nov. 5 abduction and murder of Cain Nkala, a leading ruling party militant who was declared a national hero posthumously by the government.
”(It) was the brutal outcome of a much wider terrorist plot by internal, and external terrorist forces with plenty of funding from some commercial farmers and organizations like the Westminster Foundation, which we have established beyond doubt gets its dirty money from dirty tricks, from the British Labour Party, the Conservative Party and Liberal Party and also of course from the government of Tony Blair,” Mugabe said.
Mugabe supporters held up signs at the cemetery that read, ”Kill All Terrorists.”
Nkala’s body was found strangled in the western city of Bulawayo and MDC officials have denied any connection to his death.
Nkala was known for leading many violent farm occupations in the Bulawayo area.
There has been widespread violence since Nkala’s murder.
On Friday, ruling party militants firebombed offices of the opposition MDC in Bulawayo, and randomly beat whites on the city’s streets.
MDC officials were told on Sunday that paramilitary units had been deployed near their headquarters in Harare to protect them from possible attack by ruling party militants after Nkala’s funeral.
MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube denied Mugabe’s allegations that the party, which holds 56 of the 120 elected parliamentary seats, has turned to violence.
At least 14 MDC members have been arrested in connection to the murder but have not been allowed to see their lawyers. Ncube said they have been tortured into making bogus confessions.
Ncube has suggested that Nkala was killed by fellow members of the ruling Zanu party in order to prevent him from testifying about violence committed by party members.
A report in the independent newspaper, The Sunday Standard, quoted associates of Nkala saying he was about to fly to Britain to testify there on the unrest when he was abducted from his home by armed men. – Sapa-AFP