Long-ruling Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday castigated opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as being a stooge of the West and vowed he would never rule the country.
”Tsvangirai, you want to rule this country on behalf of [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair,” Mugabe told hundreds of supporters at his party headquarters.
”As long as I am alive that will never happen.”
He said Britain was using Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as a front to re-colonise Zimbabwe in order to plunder the country’s minerals.
”You [Tsvangirai] thought when I say I am 83, you could push me. It’s a solid 83 years of experience and resilience and I know the tactics.
”We went to jail, we are hardened. Nothing frightens me. Someone wrote that I am a frightened man. Frightened by who? Little men like Blair. I have seen it all. I make a stand on principle; here I was born, here I stand and here I shall die.”
Mugabe has come under increasing international pressure after his security forces thwarted a planned anti-government rally, detaining and beating up Tsvangirai and scores of opposition activists.
He said Tsvangirai provoked the police to arrest and assault him to draw the attention of the international media while opposition youths were paid to start riots.
”You don’t go to the police with violence. If you are a violent man you get more violence.”
Mugabe called on members of his ruling Zanu-PF to stand up against their opponents saying there was no room for cowards in the party.
”There are some among us who are frightened. If they are attacked they easily break. They are frightened by reports from CNN and BBC and think we are finished. This has not started today. We have experienced worse things. We were put in jails by the colonial government and restricted in protected villages like goats and we were labelled terrorists.”
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980, announced he is ready to stand for another term in presidential elections due next year if his party chooses him. — AFP
