Posted on 02/27/2009 1:52:44 AM PST by bruinbirdman
HONG KONG - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe appears to have picked Hong Kong for his final bolt hole as power slips inexorably out of his hands. He couldn't have chosen a more secure place.
It is not just that his US$5 million three-storey villa stands on one of the fabled "Nine Dragons" that in historic times provided the British colonial army a mountainous protective barrier against Chinese imperial forces, and is approachable only by a narrow road from Tai Po, a small town in the New Territories.
It is the protection from intrusion that is all but guaranteed by the developer of the JC Castle estate on Shan Tong Road. The security post at the entrance to the gated development carries a gold crown and the name, also in gold, "Emperor Group".
For Hong Kong people that speaks for itself. Emperor Group is the flagship conglomerate of one of Hong Kong's richest and most powerful tycoons, Albert Yeung Sau Shing, who has spent time in prison and is on US and Canadian watch lists for alleged connections to the Triad crime syndicate.
He is known to be on good terms with the leadership in Beijing, which also has close ties with Mugabe. When asked about Mugabe's property, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing said: "Hong Kong is a free port, and even Falungong practitioners can buy a property there, am I right?"
The Falungong, branded an "evil cult" on the mainland, is banned there but free to practice in Hong Kong.
Whether Mugabe, currently the world's best-known political pariah, has visited the property in Hong Kong is not known. It is certain, however, that his daughter Bona, 20, and a team of bodyguards are in residence. She is studying at City University in Kowloon.
Mugabe reputedly paid 30% above
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
ping
I miss Rhodesia. And just when you think that Mugabe could never get any more outrageous...
The boy’s about dead, ain’t he?
His soul is.
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Ian Smith stayed on his farm and/or lived in his town house with the gates and doors open right up until he had to go into an old-age home in South Africa. Anyone could just walk in and say hullo. I imagine quite a lot of people would like to walk in and greet Mugabe one last time.
Ian Smith stayed on his farm and/or lived in his town house with the gates and doors open right up until he had to go into an old-age home in South Africa. Anyone could just walk in and say hullo. I imagine quite a lot of people would like to walk in and greet Mugabe one last time.
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