Posted on 07/06/2003 1:37:08 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Saturday southern African states would reject any attempt by President Bush to interfere in Zimbabwe's affairs when he visits Africa next week.
"If he's coming to dictate to us as to how we should run our countries, then we will say: 'Go back, go home Yankee'," Mugabe told supporters at a rally in the southern province of Masvingo. His remarks were carried by state television.
Last month, the United States urged southern African states to put more pressure on Mugabe to allow political change, warning that unrest and economic chaos in Zimbabwe would carry on threatening stability in southern Africa if they did not act.
Bush will visit two of Zimbabwe's neighbors, South Africa and Botswana, during his July 7-12 trip.
Washington has taken a hard line against Mugabe since he won presidential elections last year that Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and several Western states denounced as fraudulent.
Bush has said Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, is not a legitimate leader.
The Bush administration has been trying to isolate Mugabe's government internationally, but Zimbabwe's neighbors have been reluctant to do so. Botswana and Angola said last month public criticism of Mugabe would only make him more intransigent.
MUGABE SALARY INCREASE
The MDC, which has accused Mugabe of violence against its supporters, Saturday condemned a government decision to raise the salaries of the president and senior government members by nearly 600 percent -- almost double the official inflation rate.
"While Mugabe looks after Mugabe, he is unable to do anything for the ordinary, suffering people of Zimbabwe," MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi told Reuters.
Zimbabwe has been hit by a series of strikes for higher pay -- the most recent by junior doctors -- because of surging consumer inflation, ranked as one of the highest rates in the world. Companies struggling in a harsh business climate have failed to increase wages to match rising costs.
Critics say Mugabe has ruined the economy through 23 years of mismanagement, causing chronic food and foreign currency shortages and record unemployment of more than 70 percent.
Mugabe denies responsibility for the country's economic malaise and blames it on sabotage by local and international opponents angry over his seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
The official Herald newspaper said Mugabe's salary would rise from Z$3 million a year to Z$20.2 million (about U.S.$11,222 at black market rates or $25,250 at official rates).
In addition, Mugabe would receive more than two million Zimbabwe dollars in allowances, the Herald said, citing a government gazette notice. A copy of the gazette was not available Saturday.
The Zimbabwe dollar trades at around 1,800 against the U.S. dollar in a thriving black market -- more than double the official rate of 800.
Last month, the MDC led a five-day strike against Mugabe's rule that shut down industry and commerce in the capital Harare.
Zimbabwe -- Nothing but destruction to show for land grab***Mugabe's new farmers in Mashonaland West are largely businessmen or politicians who bark orders down the phone to managers from their suburban homes in the city. In the Mazowe Valley last week, west of Harare, is first lady Grace Mugabe's farm, which she wrenched from a frightened old couple. She is growing a few hectares of maize, government tractors were ploughing for her last weekend at a dirt cheap price, and Mugabe's sister, Sabina, is trying her hand at seed maize on one of several farms she has taken.***
Freeing a Nation From a Tyrant's Grip By COLIN L. POWELL - A brave man recently met with me and described how life in his country has become unbearable. "There is too much fear in the country, fear of the unknown and fear of the known consequences if we act or speak out," explained Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Yet Archbishop Ncube speaks out fearlessly about the terrible human rights conditions in Zimbabwe, and is threatened almost every day with detention or worse.
For hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans, the worst has already come. Millions of people are desperately hungry because the country's once-thriving agricultural sector collapsed last year after President Robert Mugabe confiscated commercial farms, supposedly for the benefit of poor blacks. But his cynical "land reform" program has chiefly benefited idle party hacks and stalwarts, not landless peasants. As a result, much of Zimbabwe's most productive land is now occupied by loyalists of the ruling ZANU-PF party, military officers, or their wives and friends.***
Zimbabwe -- Beware the U-turn***The key to understanding what Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are up to - for blacks as well as whites - is the word "leases." The ruling party moguls, security force chiefs and 54,000 others getting so-called "model 2" holdings, capable of being farmed on an individual basis, will not be granted the freehold their 5,000 white predecessors had (The first 2,900 seizure and eviction orders fell due on August 9 and scores of whites were detained over the past weekend for defying them, although their constitutional validity is heavily in doubt).***
US wants "Comrade Bob" out, transitional government in Zimbabwe: senior official***The official would not say whether Washington had gotten positive reactions to its call from any specific country in the region, but said generally the "neighborhood" was increasingly aware of the problems posed by Mugabe's rule. "The neighborhood -- meaning southern Africa -- is realizing that this is not going well, this is breaking bad," the official said. "The food situation is going to get nothing but worse, the economic scene is disastrous." The official noted that Zimbabwe's economy was now crippled by hyperinflation and an unemployment rate of 80 percent and that Zimbabweans were fleeing their country in droves to become refugees in Botswana, Mozambique, and South Africa. In addition, the situation in Zimbabwe is hurting the economies of other countries in the region as potential investors steer clear due to fears about the spread of the crisis. "The neighborhood is starting to realize that there is a downside to giving aid and protection to Comrade Bob," the official said, using a derogatory nickname for Mugabe.***
Or what, chump?
If he's coming to dictate to us as to how we should run our countries, then we will say: 'Go back, go home Yankee'," Mugabe told supporters at a rally in the southern province of Masvingo. His remarks were carried by state television.
Wow! Mugabe is a neo-Confed!
That's hardly possible.
Just the sound of helicopters might make him run for the border.
Powell setting Bush's agenda?? You must be joking. Or drinking. Or both.
Powell, the terrorist supporter, the political saboteur with the Democrat innards? Geez. Have you been living under a rock not to get a load of what Powell is about?
Yes. And now it may be going terrorist. Mugabe was about to sign over the country's oil reserves to Libya, in return for favours like a little gasoline. Once firmly a Libyan satellite, expect things to get even worse.
Lord love a duck, but this is so typical of socialists/communists governments whereever you go.
In fact, IMHO, it is the hallmark of these governments. It's never their fault. Ever. It is always the result of fifth columnists, "wreckers", "capitalist roaders", "enemies of the state", you name it, but never their's.
In fact, I believe this is one of Bush's secret goals.
Now, he tries to pump up his esteem by daring Bush not to send troops? If the US does, it will be by the invitation of a
neighboring state that the US cares about avoiding the perils of mass immigration.
BTB, another post said that Zim tripled the salaries of Mugacountry & Co. Opponents point to the act as proof that
inflation is much more than the "official" figure.
There's always France and Le Worm to bail'em out. Or even the EU. Or the high and mighty Belgium.
P.S. A few months ago, it was reported that Zim doesn't even have the hard currency to buy ink and paper to print money.
And then the police started harassing the public who carried boxes of cash, to buy staples. Needless to say, Mugabe's security detail needs to be paid on time, otherwise he'll be in danger.
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