As for Mugabe, your turn will come. Count on it.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/19/2003 4:42:29 PM PDT by MadIvan
A Zimbabwean soldier killed in Iraq who had signed up to serve in the British Army has been denounced as a "traitor" by Robert Mugabe's regime.
The country's state-controlled media has called for the body of "mercenary" Piper Christopher Muzvuru, of the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards, to be buried in Britain and not returned to Zimbabwe.
Piper Muzvuru, 21, who said shortly before his death that his dearest ambition was to play the bagpipes before the Queen, was killed by a sniper in Basra.
Last night his brother, Munqondfi, said from the family's home in Gweru, near Bulawayo: "We don't know what is going to happen about bringing his body back. My mother is very distressed."
Family and friends of Piper Muzvuru in Britain - of whom more than 40 were at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, last week when his body was returned - have refused to speak out because they are scared of the Mugabe regime.
Piper Muzvuru enlisted into the British Army in February 2001. He joined the Irish Guards in October 2001 and soon completed a course at the Piping School in Edinburgh. He was the first black piper in the regiment's 103-year history.
Up to 200 Zimbabweans are serving in the British Army. Citizens of Commonwealth countries are entitled to apply to join Britain's Armed Forces.
On the day of his death Piper Muzvuru was interviewed by a reporter from an American news agency. "I always wanted to learn the bagpipes," he told Martin Walker of UPI.
At dawn on April 6, as his regiment prepared to launch an attack on Basra, Piper Muzvuru played two Irish tunes on his chanter, a small pipe usually kept for practice. He was killed by sniper fire later that afternoon. The next day his colleague L/Cpl Ian Malone, 28, from Dublin, was also killed.
Last week, the Daily Mirror in Zimbabwe, which is owned by a former member of Mr Mugabe's cabinet, said that Piper Muzvuru's body must "be buried in Britain - the country that he chose to die for".
The paper's owner and editor-in-chief, Dr Ibbo Mandaza, a former cabinet minister under Mr Mugabe, said: "Throughout history Africans have fought on behalf of Britain in return for cash and I regret that that tradition continues today."
The pro-government Daily Herald published a cartoon of Piper Muzvuru headed "Buffalo Soldier", a reference to the nickname of an American post-Civil War cavalry regiment made up of black men used to fight Native American Indians.
As for Mugabe, your turn will come. Count on it.
Regards, Ivan
I'm sure that will be the case.
As for Mugabe, when the day comes I'm sure his troops will be every bit as loyal as Saddam's were.
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