Robert Mugabe has cast a dark cloud on this weekend's landmark visit by a delegation from the European Union (EU), condemning 'bloody whites' for meddling in Zimbabwe's affairs.
Swedish International Development Cooperation Minister, Gunilla Carlsson, and EU Aid Commissioner, Karel de Gucht, will travel to the country this weekend after an EU-South Africa summit came to an end on Friday. They are set to meet Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, as well as other ministers, officials and representatives of NGOs, in an effort to start rebuilding a diplomatic relationship with Zimbabwe.
But that relationship will likely be a one-sided initiative, after Mugabe on Friday said the 'bloody whites' had not been invited to the country. He also denounced the targeted sanctions still imposed by western nations on him and his cronies. He was speaking at a gathering of the ZANU PF youth wing where he accused America and the EU of being 'imperialists' that want to steal the country's heritage.
"Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others? That's why we say down with you. We have not invited these bloody whites. They want to poke their nose into our own affairs. Refuse that," he said.
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He continued: "We have stood firm and we have refused to let go. Zimbabwe, sanctions or no sanctions, Zimbabwe remains ours."
The visit by the EU delegation is the first since the targeted sanctions against Mugabe, his cronies, and several regime-linked businesses were introduced in 2002, and comes amid African calls for the targeted sanctions to be lifted. EU officials have said there is no plan to lift the sanctions, saying the visit is merely 'preparatory' and to 're-establish political dialogue'.
South African President Jacob Zuma on Friday dismissed the EU's position and instead echoed the calls made by leaders at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Kinshasa earlier this week, for the sanctions to be removed. He told South African media on Friday that the lifting of the sanctions would speed up Zimbabwe's recovery.
"The EU has a position that they are not lifting sanctions. We are seeing things, as SADC, from a different point of view," he said.
Zuma was speaking after talks with visiting Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, which included discussion on the situation in Zimbabwe. Referring to the EU fact-finding mission heading to Zimbabwe on Saturday, Reinfeldt stressed it was going there to listen, and was "not in preparation, at this time, for lifting of the restrictions we have coming from the EU."
Meanwhile a Zimbabwe action group based in the UK, on Friday cautioned the delegation against handing over developmental aid directly to the unity government. The Zimbabwe Europe Network said in a statement that the EU must "use this very timely visit to increase the pressure for the Zimbabwean inclusive government to undertake the key reforms it had committed itself to in the GPA."
"For the European Union to support the inclusive government directly, before any reform, would be rewarding the instigators of violence," Tor-Hugne Olsen, Coordinator of the Zimbabwe Europe Network said.
Government officials at the same time told the state-controlled Herald newspaper on Friday that the government would demand an apology for the sanctions, while the EU delegation is in the country this weekend.
"There can be no ties where one nation is treated as inferior. It is not in our national interest to allow foreigners to dictate to us how we should govern ourselves," an Information Ministry official said in the paper.
"The starting point would then obviously be that the EU has to admit that sanctions are wrong and that land reform in Zimbabwe is irreversible," the official said.
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Mugabe before the meeting: http://news.my.msn.com/topstories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3579419
Mugabe on Friday called the West "neocolonialists" who "still want our land." He also said sanctions punished his people and forced them to live in poverty... "Why are they sanctions? Why are our people being punished? It is because the imperialists want our heritage," said Mugabe.
Mugabe during the meeting: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/09/12/mugabe.zimbabwe.eu/
"There was no animosity, it was quite friendly," Mugabe said.
Cowardice and groveling before the Europeans he tells his people he is fighting and that they should fight... could we expect no less from Mugabe?
What else would one expect from criminal Mugabe, the notorious lunatic? He is trying to save his skin, being so afraid to face the ICC!!
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Takunya, you may rant and rave but Mugabe only has two inevitable options awaiting him and those are the ICC and natural death. Sister Prem is right and no matter what YOU think, the ICC is there for the likes of Mugabe and YOU cannot abolish it. It may take some time to round up all these Mugabe-like criminals but eventually they will have to answer for their sadistic crimes. Writing about "whores and grandmothers smelly legs" as a way of rebutting just shows your level of stupidity and immaturity and perhaps incriminating yourself as to what you do in you past time otherwise how would you know what a grandmother's legs smell like. Is that why your grandmother has been heard screaming from her hut? It's you? Shame on you pastor.
A figment perhaps, but a figment that Mugabe is willing to put on a smiling, friendly face before, regardless of what he says behind their back.
What will Mugabe's fans say next month, when Mugabe tells them they are at war with South Africa, and the British has always been Zimbabwe's allies against the evil colonialists in Pretoria? Why, they will suddenly notice that all the posters praising Zuma are wrong, and tear them all down as fast as they can. Moments later, the streets of Harare will be wallpapered with smiling pictures of Gordon Brown and Robert Mugabe shaking hands, and all will be right with the world once again, as the cries of the starving children of Zimbabwe float gently on the breeze.
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