Posted on 11/08/2005 6:36:35 PM PST by F14 Pilot
HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe told the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe to "go to hell" on Tuesday, after the envoy blamed the country's economic and political crisis on mismanagement and corrupt rule.
State media said the ambassador, Christopher Dell, risked expulsion from the southern African country for his "undiplomatic" criticism of the government in a public lecture.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said it had asked Mugabe for his reaction to the comments.
"The president said the ambassador must go to hell. The president said: 'I cannot even spell the word Dell with a "D" but an "H" and that is where Dell should go'," a ZBC correspondent said during a news bulletin.
Dell said last week that Mugabe's government was responsible for plunging Zimbabwe into a crisis which had left it with soaring poverty and chronic food shortages.
Mugabe, 81 and in power for 25 years, embarked on a controversial drive of seizing and redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks in 2000, and earlier this year tens of thousands of people were made homeless after the government ordered the demolition of shacks and "illegal houses".
In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli backed the ambassador's comments and said the Zimbabwean government had not lodged a complaint. Zimbabwean state media said the Foreign Ministry was dealing with the matter.
"I think our ambassador and his comments very fairly and accurately reflect the policy of the United States," Ereli said.
Mugabe's relations with many Western powers, including the United States and the European Union, have soured in the last few years over charges of human rights abuses and vote-rigging.
But Mugabe says he has been targeted by foreign opponents led by Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler Britain for his nationalistic policies and says most of Africa is on his side in which he describes as a struggle against imperialism.
Looks like the Ambassador is darn close already. (I'm a little slow ;-))
I saw that you have an interest in Zimbabwe's issues.
Thought this might be ineteresting for you
IMHO none of these America-bashing countries deserve anything from us. Let them be on their own for a decade or two and see where they end up.
Oh wait, they're already there.
You first.
Owooh....bad form! Friggin' cannibal.
yeah, let's drop a few birds from China on them, and let them figure it out. eh?
Maybe Mugabe's Pontiff should have a talk with him.
This rogue State, ruled by a rogue moron -- will soon pass from existence..
Semper Fi
I like the sound of this Dell.
Dell, Go to Hell! :-))
somebody needs to buy a mercenary team to do away with this guy
I am bowled over by this man's wit. This is second only to "Your mama."
LOL!
Here's to "undiplomatic" statements to african tinpot dictators!
(raises a glass of Shiner Bock)
I'm thinking the appropriate reply to "Go To Hell" would have been "Okay." Then we pick up our stuff and go home: our food aid, or financial aid, the portion our UN contribution that goes to Zimb... all our stuff.
President Robert Mugabe told the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe to "go to hell"
Hey , good thing he knows the way , he won't get lost when
he's on his way there real soon....
-
"Dogs of War" et all.
I think we really have to make an effort to expand FR's reach.
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