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(NEWZIMBABWE) Don't be 'used by the enemy' - Mugabe tells opposition

Don't be 'used by the enemy' - Mugabe tells opposition
Last updated: 08/12/2008 05:08:17

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe said on Monday his country "was not for sale" and "will never be a colony again", while warning the opposition not to be "used by the enemy."

"Let's not hand over the country to the enemy," Mugabe said in a national address for Heroes' Day and ahead of a new round of power-sharing talks with his political rivals.

"If you are on the enemy's side or you are being used by enemies, stop it ... It cannot just be unity in vain -- a hollow unity," the 84-year-old leader said, addressing the audience in both Shona and English.

"It must be unity guided by basic principles. Principles that will solidify us, strengthen us."

He added in the address in honour of those who died in the guerrilla war that led to the country's independence: "Zimbabwe is not for sale and Zimbabwe will never be a colony again."

Mugabe has often sought to portray opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai as stooge of former colonial power Britain.

He said "when somebody makes you turn against each other, you don't say we are no longer family members."

Mugabe, himself a hero of the independence struggle, also declared "we will die for our legacy."

"Fighting in self-defence is not a sin. So we fight to protect our legacy."

Tsvangirai snubbed the National Heroes Day commemorations in Harare. However, the other MDC formation leader Arthur Mutambara was part of the proceedings at the national shrine where the country’s national heroes are buried.

There had been expectations earlier on Monday that Tsvangirai would attend this year’s commemoration ceremony, an event he has often snubbed before.

In a Heroes Day message published on New Zimbabwe.com, Mutambara said Heroes Day provided an opportunity for Zimbabweans to “evaluate and put into context the role of the Western World in the affairs of our country”.

While appreciating the “moral, diplomatic and material support our democratic forces and organisations have received from Western institutions and governments”, Mutambara said he took exception to the “irritating ignorance, political insensitivity, double standards, and patronising arrogance that characterise Western diplomacy with respect to our country”.

He blasted: “For the record, our angry rebuke of Western bungling is not just driven by principles, values or pursuit of the puritanical. It is about impact and results. For the democratic forces in Zimbabwe, Western double standards and dishonesty have actually damaged our cause and cost us immensely.

“Western governments have undermined our legitimacy, strengthened our opponents (the dictatorship), removed our moral authority, and ruined our effectiveness and standing among Africans. - Staff Reporter/AFP

Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, MoU, NEOCOLONIALISM, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 7:21 AM