SADC gives Mugabe licence to act at will

HARARE – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has openly acknowledged an assault on Zimbabwe’s opposition leader.

The veteran president told supporters on Friday that he had not received one word of criticism from his fellow southern African leaders at a regional summit the previous day, telling them his arch rival Morgan Tsvangirai had “deserved to be assaulted” last month. However in a rare admission of divisions within his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic-Front (Zanu-PF) party, the 83-year-old told members to keep quarrels in-house and not to feed the appetite of a “hostile media”.Addressing a rally in Shona, Mugabe said of Thursday’s summit of the Southern African Development Community in Tanzania: “Yes, I told them he was beaten but he asked for it.””We got full backing, not even one (leader) criticised our actions,” added the president, who on Friday was chosen by his party to stand for another term in office.”Not one condemned our actions.SADC is not a court.We are brothers, we co-operate with each other and we have love for one another,” Mugabe was quoted as saying in the state Sunday Mail.Mugabe has been widely condemned for the arrests and assaults of Tsvangirai and other Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members last month as they tried to attend a prayer rally.Tsvangirai suffered a fractured skull.One MDC supporter was killed in the brutal crackdown.Mugabe, widely blamed for the political and economic crisis rocking Zimbabwe, would remain president until the age of 90 if he were to serve a full six-year term.In other developments yesterday: * nine opposition activists all required medical attention for injuries sustained since their arrest, * scores of teenagers were detained in a police raid on a popular disco in Harare, and * the government tried to stave off a planned two-day work stayaway, scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday.While there have been rumblings of discontent within Zanu-PF towards Mugabe, no-one has so far put their head above the parapet to challenge his nomination.Opposition within Zimbabwe has soared in recent weeks with inflation now the highest in the world at 1 730 per cent and four out of five people out of work.Any hopes among Zimbabweans that SADC would stand up publicly to Mugabe were dashed when leaders expressed “solidarity” with his government, called for the lifting of Western sanctions and chose South African President Thabo Mbeki to act as a mediator.Mugabe has tried to blame Zimbabwe’s economic woes on the West, although the sanctions programme currently in place only targets Mugabe and his inner circle by restricting their travel and freezing their bank accounts.The choice of Mbeki to try to promote dialogue between the Zimbabwean government and opposition was also likely to have pleased Mugabe given that he has consistently refused to publicly criticise his northern neighbour.The MDC said it was prepared to meet with Zanu-PF representatives under Mbeki’s mediation but held out little hope for the dialogue.”Even if you have dialogue tomorrow, how does that reduce inflation from 1 730 per cent to say two per cent, or reduce an unemployment rate of 80 per cent,” MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said.The parlous state of the economy has led to some analysts to speculate Mugabe may face a challenge from within but the president said anyone who wished to criticise him should do so through party structures.”Whatever the nature of the differences or quarrels we have it is completely wrong to allow them to get into the public arena,” he told the central committee.”Several of us are keeping the hostile press going and sometimes going through the revelation of information that should be kept secret.”He also laughed off any suggestion his regime was near to collapse.”Both governments of Bush and Blair think we have reached what they term a tipping point …they are gravely mistaken,” Mugabe charged.Nampa-AP-AFP-ReutersHowever in a rare admission of divisions within his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic-Front (Zanu-PF) party, the 83-year-old told members to keep quarrels in-house and not to feed the appetite of a “hostile media”.Addressing a rally in Shona, Mugabe said of Thursday’s summit of the Southern African Development Community in Tanzania: “Yes, I told them he was beaten but he asked for it.””We got full backing, not even one (leader) criticised our actions,” added the president, who on Friday was chosen by his party to stand for another term in office.”Not one condemned our actions.SADC is not a court.We are brothers, we co-operate with each other and we have love for one another,” Mugabe was quoted as saying in the state Sunday Mail.Mugabe has been widely condemned for the arrests and assaults of Tsvangirai and other Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members last month as they tried to attend a prayer rally.Tsvangirai suffered a fractured skull.One MDC supporter was killed in the brutal crackdown.Mugabe, widely blamed for the political and economic crisis rocking Zimbabwe, would remain president until the age of 90 if he were to serve a full six-year term.In other developments yesterday: * nine opposition activists all required medical attention for injuries sustained since their arrest, * scores of teenagers were detained in a police raid on a popular disco in Harare, and * the government tried to stave off a planned two-day work stayaway, scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday.While there have been rumblings of discontent within Zanu-PF towards Mugabe, no-one has so far put their head above the parapet to challenge his nomination.Opposition within Zimbabwe has soared in recent weeks with inflation now the highest in the world at 1 730 per cent and four out of five people out of work.Any hopes among Zimbabweans that SADC would stand up publicly to Mugabe were dashed when leaders expressed “solidarity” with his government, called for the lifting of Western sanctions and chose South African President Thabo Mbeki to act as a mediator.Mugabe has tried to blame Zimbabwe’s economic woes on the West, although the sanctions programme currently in place only targets Mugabe and his inner circle by restricting their travel and freezing their bank accounts.The choice of Mbeki to try to promote dialogue between the Zimbabwean government and opposition was also likely to have pleased Mugabe given that he has consistently refused to publicly criticise his northern neighbour.The MDC said it was prepared to meet with Zanu-PF representatives under Mbeki’s mediation but held out little hope for the dialogue.”Even if you have dialogue tomorrow, how does that reduce inflation from 1 730 per cent to say two per cent, or reduce an unemployment rate of 80 per cent,” MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said.The parlous state of the economy has led to some analysts to speculate Mugabe may face a challenge from within but the president said anyone who wished to criticise him should do so through party structures.”Whatever the nature of the differences or quarrels we have it is completely wrong to allow them to get into the public arena,” he told the central committee.”Several of us are keeping the hostile press going and sometimes going through the revelation of information that should be kept secret.”He also laughed off any suggestion his regime was near to collapse.”Both governments of Bush and Blair think we have reached what they term a tipping point …they are gravely mistaken,” Mugabe charged.Nampa-AP-AFP-Reuters