Mugabe aide tells West: 'Go hang'

[Lazie]

George Charamba said the West could "go hang a thousand times"


A spokesman for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has rejected Western criticism of the country's disputed presidential run-off election.
At an African Union summit in Egypt, George Charamba said the West had no basis to speak about the situation - and can "go hang a thousand times".
Amid suggestions of a Kenya-style deal with the opposition, he said only a "Zimbabwean way" could end the crisis.
President Robert Mugabe said he had won the vote, boycotted by the opposition.
The run-off was widely criticised by Western leaders as not being free or fair.
Earlier, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai left the Dutch embassy in Harare, where he had taken refuge after pulling out of Friday's vote because of election violence.
He had decided the situation was calm enough to return home, the Dutch foreign ministry official said.
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says he won the presidential election outright in March, but government officials said he did not secure enough votes to avoid a run-off.
Growing AU pressure
Asked whether Zimbabwe should follow Kenya and create a government of national unity, Mr Charamba said: "Kenya is Kenya. Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe."
"We have our own history of evolving dialogue and resolving political impasses the Zimbabwean way. The Zimbabwean way, not the Kenyan way. Not at all."
Mr Mugabe is expected to address the AU summit in Sharm el-Sheikh later on Tuesday.
One of them grabbed my arm and flung me to the ground... They dragged me by my hair to where my husband was lying


Angela Campbell
Wife of Zimbabwe farmer



African leaders' discomfort
Zimbabwe: Possible scenarios
Inside Mugabe's mind


African leaders attending the summit have faced growing pressure to take a strong stand against Zimbabwe's president.
Sierra Leonean President Ernest Koroma told the BBC he strongly condemned Zimbabwe's flawed electoral process.
"We believe the people of Zimbabwe have been denied their democratic rights," he said.
Mr Koroma expressed support for a South African initiative to encourage the formation of a transitional government of national unity.
"We would urge the South African group to ensure they engage both parties to form a transitional government that prepares Zimbabwe for fresh elections."
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga urged the AU to suspend Mr Mugabe until he allowed free and fair elections.
But Africa's longest serving leader, Gabon President Omar Bongo, said Mr Mugabe should be accepted as the country's elected president.
Meanwhile, the US has outlined a draft Security Council resolution calling for sanctions on Zimbabwe and Italy has recalled its ambassador to the country for consultations.
Sanctions call dismissed
In Zimbabwe, an elderly farmer, his wife and their son-in-law, were found alive but badly beaten on Monday.
Mr Tsvangirai was arrested several times ahead of the run-off


Mike Campbell, 75, his wife Angela, 66 and Ben Freeth had been kidnapped at gunpoint from their Harare farm by a heavily armed mob on Sunday.
When they were found, Mr Campbell had concussion and a broken collar-bone, one of his wife's arms was broken in two places, and Mr Freeth had been beaten on the soles of his feet.
Mrs Campbell said a mob of Zanu-PF supporters had attacked her with sticks, just as Mr Mugabe was being re-inaugurated as Zimbabwe's president.
"One of them grabbed my arm and flung me to the ground, hence I have a rather serious break in my upper arm," she said.
"They dragged me by my hair to where my husband was lying and they trussed us up with ropes lying on the gravel."
A friend of the family said the Campbells had been forced to sign a document withdrawing an appeal against the seizure of his farm.
'No threat'
Earlier, Zimbabwe's ambassador to the UN dismissed calls for sanctions against his country over pre-election violence.
Robert Mugabe is due to address the AU summit later on Tuesday


Boniface Chidyausiku dubbed US-led calls for fresh UN measures against Zimbabwe a "non-issue".
Asked about sanctions, Mr Chidyausiku told AP news agency: "I'm not even bothered, I wouldn't lose sleep over it... We are not a threat to international peace and security." Mr Tsvangirai defeated Mr Mugabe in the presidential vote on 29 March but failed to win an absolute majority. He reluctantly agreed to participate in the 27 June run-off but withdrew blaming violence which he said had killed nearly 90 of his followers.

[Hortical]

Living off rats to survive in Zimbabwe

A family in Zimbabwe cooks rats in a frying pan for dinner.

By Jeff Koinange
CNN
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(CNN) -- Twelve-year-old Beatrice returns from the fields with small animals she's caught for dinner.
Her mother, Elizabeth, prepares the meat and cooks it on a grill made of three stones supporting a wood fire. It's just enough food, she says, to feed her starving family of six.
Tonight, they dine on rats.
"Look what we've been reduced to eating?" she said. "How can my children eat rats in a country that used to export food? This is a tragedy." (Watch as Beatrice digs for rodents in the fields of Zimbabwe)
This is a story about how Zimbabwe, once dubbed southern Africa's bread basket, has in six short years become a basket case. It is about a country that once exported surplus food now apparently falling apart, with many residents scrounging for rodents to survive.
According to the CIA fact book, which profiles the countries of the world, the Zimbabwean economy is crashing -- inflation was at least 585 percent by the end of 2005 -- and the nation now must import food.
Zimbabwe's ambassador to United States, Machivenyika Mapuranga, told CNN on Tuesday that reports of people eating rats unfairly represented the situation, adding that at times while he grew up his family ate rodents.
"The eating of the field mice -- Zimbabweans do that. It is a delicacy," he said. "It is misleading to portray the eating of field mice as an act of desperation. It is not."
Western journalists aren't allowed in Zimbabwe. CNN gained access via a cameraman who operated under the radar of the Zimbabwean government. Mapuranga said that there are news agencies allowed to film there but that the country was "under siege" by media outlets like CNN and the BBC, "which have shown themselves to be hostile to the people of Zimbabwe."
Critics: Mugabe rules with iron fist

Critics point to one man for the nation's downfall -- 82-year-old President Robert Mugabe, one of the longest-serving rulers in Africa. They say he rules with an iron fist and has reduced Zimbabwe to a nation of beggars.
On Friday, Mugabe downplayed the situation in the country.
"I know we are in difficult times; it's hard times that we are going through. You are bearing a fair share of the burden, we know that [but] Zimbabwe will never collapse," he told a meeting of his ruling political party, the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front, or ZANU - PF, according to Reuters.
But Shadrack Gutto, of the Center for International Political Studies, said Zimbabwe is on the verge of collapse.
"The reality is it's really grinding down and not improving," he said.
The downslide began, critics say, in 2000 when the government crippled the country's prime commercial farms by running off white farmers and redistributing the land to Mugabe's cronies. At least a dozen white farmers were killed and dozens were injured and hospitalized. Thousands more fled the country and the land. Most of that land now lies empty and abandoned.
Mapuranga said the program was "the greatest thing that has happened to Zimbabwe."
The ambassador said the Africans who had been marginalized by whites before can now own land and control natural resources.
"This generation may suffer, but we are actually laying the foundations of prosperity and Zimbabwean control," he said.
Mugabe's political rivals have been neutralized. The official opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has been fractured by infighting and disunity. Its leader, former trade unionist Morgan Tvasngirai, just barely survived being convicted of treason after a video was released showing him discussing plans for the supposed "elimination" of Mugabe.
Last year, a few months after the presidential election, the government of Zimbabwe bulldozed homes and businesses in the capital of Harare. It was called "Operation Murambatsvina," which in the local Shona language means "Drive Out Rubbish." The United Nations said more than 700,000 people were left homeless, and critics say they were targeted for their political views.
'We live like animals'

In the midst of the rubble that litters the once-scenic capital, Winnie Gondo, a mother of five, uses any means available to survive. She lives in a burned-out vehicle.
Gondo told CNN she lost not only her home but a twin son, who died from the squalid conditions.
"I've lost everything," she said. "We live like animals here and there's no relief in sight."
Zimbabwe has been reduced to a nation of beggars, Archbishop of Bulawayo Pious Ncube said.
"Life has become extremely difficult in Zimbabwe and a lot of depression ... people are very much depressed and they can no longer think idealistically. They're looking all the time for food -- 'Where do I get my next meal,'" he said.
Ncube traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, to show a video that he says details numerous cases of police brutality and illegal clamping down on anyone who opposes Mugabe.
The archbishop said that Mugabe wants to hold on to power, in part to avoid the same fate as Charles Taylor, who once ruled Liberia. After being forced from office in 2003, Taylor now is in a prison awaiting trial at The Hague, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ncube believes that if Mugabe keeps control, Zimbabwe will continue to sink into an "abyss," and experts agree the only way the nation will eventually get off its knees is when a new president is elected.
"The key will be when Robert Mugabe moves out of the picture as a leader of Zimbabwe," Gutto said.
Until such time, Zimbabwe seems set to remain as a nation of food lines and fuel queues, of shacks and squatters, of rats and rat-eaters -- a nation fast grinding to a halt.
"I can't remember the last time I ate real food," says Elizabeth, the mother feeding her family. "We can't afford anything anymore. We're now just eating these rats to survive."

[Hortical]

Whey the apologists on the forum deh? Should I call unuh out?

[Mosiah]

Well, yuh going to have to call dem out on someting else.

Zimbabwe's ambassador to United States, Machivenyika Mapuranga, told CNN on Tuesday that reports of people eating rats unfairly represented the situation, adding that at times while he grew up his family ate rodents.
"The eating of the field mice -- Zimbabweans do that. It is a delicacy," he said. "It is misleading to portray the eating of field mice as an act of desperation. It is not."

[Lazie]

Well, yuh going to have to call dem out on someting else.

... suh yuh believe the cow jump over the moon? Have you seen the news clips with the shelves in the supermarket?

[Gamma]

i don't know zimbabwean eating habits are however irrespective of whether eating field mice is a delicacy or not, mugabe has gone quite mad and needs to go!!!!

[Mosiah]

True! The bad part about this mice meal, what if you wanted to make a mice sandwich? How much million dollars for a loaf again?

[MdmeX]

Soon the mice will be a scarce resource! So what happens then.

I hope that Mugabe is held in solitary confinement in his homeland and not allowed to leave. Wonder where all the money is lodged

[Gamma]

reminds me of another african leader who went mad with power.....shaka....

[Muadib]

Tink yuh was ah guh seh Percival...

[Gamma]

mi was depending on you fi dat one....

[Muadib]

LOL !!

Norman Manley..Michael Manley.. PJ Patterson.. Portia Simpson..

Anyone notice a trend ?

[Islandman]

Me teacha!

Thier last names are in alphabetical order?

[Mosiah]

One married a sculptress, the other thought he was sculpture, one was as active as sculpture and the last one was sculpture loved by pigeons.

Do I get a bonus question?

[Lazie]

"and the last one was sculpture loved by pigeons."

ummm ... Karl and Jawge!!!