Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday dismissed any notion that his country needed a ”rescue package” from the international community, Zim Online reported.
”We have heard of so many so-called initiatives to rescue Zimbabwe. Rescue this nation from what?” he said at the burial of late Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya in Harare.
”We are not dying, we don’t need any rescue. You would think that we are about to perish as a nation.”
Mugabe added: ”We tell the world from this sacred empire that is Zimbabwe, we are not about to die, we will not die. We will not collapse. Maybe we are suffering, yes, but we will never die.”
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and South African President Thabo Mbeki have been leading a fresh initiative to broker a rescue package for Zimbabwe, in its sixth year of economic recession.
In his address to mourners on Thursday, Mugabe also launched another attack on the United States and United Kingdom for their targeted sanctions on him and senior members of his government.
”The sanctions are punishing the ordinary person. The lie about the so-called sanctions being personalised for the leadership not to travel can no longer be sustained,” he said.
”Britain and the US are campaigning against Zimbabwe and discouraging other countries from investing in and trading with Zimbabwe. That is illegal because the UN has not sanctioned that.” — Sapa