Posted on 12/13/2002 4:41:36 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
President Robert Mugabe threatened retribution against the white population of Zimbabwe on Friday, suggesting they were working with Britain, the former colonial power, to sabotage his government.
Mugabe accused the British of leading an international campaign to isolate Zimbabwe and recruit support for his opponents inside his country.
"The more they work against us, the more they express hostility against us, the more negative we shall become to their kith and kin here," Mugabe said at the opening of his ruling party's annual convention.
The embattled Mugabe, however, did not refer to the nation's deepening economic crisis and a looming famine largely blamed on his party's policies.
In an 80-minute address, Mugabe railed against whites, Britain and its Western allies whom he accused of "nurturing enemies among us" by criticizing his party and supporting the main opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change.
"We are the type of people who, if you step on our foot, we fight back," said Mugabe.
Mugabe wore a baseball cap bearing the slogan "Chave Chimurenga," meaning "It is now war" in the local Shona language.
The white population in Zimbabwe stands at about 30,000 less than 1 percent of the population.
More than double that number lived in the southern African country 2 1/2 years ago, before ruling party militants began a campaign to seize white-owned farms, sparking political and economic unrest.
Most whites are the descendants of colonial era British and South African settlers.
The government has repeatedly accused Western countries and local whites of funding the main opposition that narrowly lost presidential elections in March.
"They are the enemies of the people and our government. We must be on our guard. Our survival is an ongoing war," Mugabe told about 2,000 ruling party loyalists at the convention in the provincial town of Chinhoyi, 70 miles northwest of Harare.
In his one reference to the country's economic woes, he said gasoline shortages that have left most of Zimbabwe's gas stations dry would be discussed in a closed session by delegates.
Delegates cheered and danced as Mugabe walked to the podium, but their response to his address was uncharacteristically muted compared to previous years.
Some laughed when Philip Chiyangwa, ruling party lawmaker for Chinhoyi, welcomed them to "Zimbabwe's bread basket."
Once known as southern Africa's bread basket, Zimbabwe now faces acute food shortages. The World Food Program says at least 6.7 million Zimbabweans, more than half the population, will need emergency food aid in coming months to avert mass starvation.
Mugabe says the food crisis on a drought earlier this year, while most analysts blames political violence and disruptions in the agriculture-based economy during the government's program to confiscate thousands of white-owned commercial farms that now lie virtually idle.
Mugabe on Thursday promised to enforce a widely abused government price freeze on most goods to slow record inflation, officially estimated at 144 percent but seen to be much higher.
That sums it up.
How can you compare the Serbs - who were not exactly innocent, but still a helluva lot less guilty than their Bosnian Muslim adversaries - to the Soviet Union, an evil empire bent on world domination who we were at (cold) war with for 45 years? Helping Afghanistan fight the Soviets was completely justified, and hastened the end to the Cold War.
Why Jesse the pimp would lead his pack of Rainbow fraud artists onto every talk show in America screaming about racial genocide (I'm sure deep down inside he's thinking,' Yah! Mugabe! Payback time. Go Mugabe go!)
Problem was that NATO intervention was put off way too long. If NATO had supervised the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1989 or so(during the first Bush administration), there would have been far fewer massacres, far fewer retaliatory massacres and no chance for radical Muslims to get a toe hold in Bosnia. Milosevic and the Serbs would of course had a cow, but who cares about them.
But we got the Clinton-Powell feud instead, where the person without the smarts wanted to do something and the person with them having a spiteful fit (this incident is a major reason why Powell should not be anywhere in or near power). So Clinton encouraged and looked the other way as radical Muslims rushed in to fill the void left by NATO and the United States.
And so now we have a truly permanent mess, just because the elder Bush would not help break up a country, Clinton did not have the guts to send Powell packing and because Clinton is fond of quick fixes (like letting the radical Muslims arm the Bosnian Muslims) instead of biting the bullet and doing it himself.
So they can be forced off the land here like in Klamath Falls. Rural Cleansing exists here too, just a bit more humane.
There's no way this can have a good ending as long as he's still around.
the Serbs were conducting themselves like Soviets.I'd differ that the Bosnian Muslims were more evil than the butchers of Srebrenica. The Serbs were like the Soviets (a traditional Serbian ally) in their constant desire for other people's territory. They seemed to be involved in every dispute in the area. Croats, Muslims, Albanians...they fought with just about everyone. By contrast, there was no fighting between the Slovenes and the Croats, despite border disputes, when they split from Yugoslavia.How can you compare the Serbs - who were not exactly innocent, but still a helluva lot less guilty than their Bosnian Muslim adversaries - to the Soviet Union, an evil empire bent on world domination who we were at (cold) war with for 45 years? Helping Afghanistan fight the Soviets was completely justified, and hastened the end to the Cold War.
-Eric
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.