Zimbabwe president’s spokesman to West: ‘Go hang’

By ANNA JOHNSON and PAUL SCHEMM Associated Press Writers
Published: July 1, 2008

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) _ Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will not step down and Western critics who called the country’s recent election a sham can “go hang,“ the longtime ruler’s spokesman said Tuesday.

The defiant comments raised doubts over efforts to persuade Mugabe to share power.

Zimbabwe’s opposition also was taking a hard line on power-sharing, further dimming prospects of a quick resolution after last weekend’s runoff election in which Mugabe was the sole candidate.

Leaders at the AU summit, in its second and final day Tuesday, have been unwilling to publicly criticize Mugabe and instead are gently pushing behind the scenes that he accept some sort of power-sharing agreement with Zimbabwe’s opposition.

But Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba sounded resistant to proposals about sharing power and told reporters that the 84-year-old Mugabe would not step down.

“He’s a few days into office and you expect him to retire, do you? ... Five days have expired, not even a week after. ... Why is the issue of the retirement of the president of Zimbabwe such an obsession for the West?“ he said.

“He has come here as president of Zimbabwe and he will go home as president of Zimbabwe, and when you visit Zimbabwe he will be there as the president of all the people of Zimbabwe,“ Charamba told reporters.

The United Nations has “made it clear” that dialogue between Mugabe and his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, is necessary, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told reporters at this Egyptian Red Sea resort.

“It is the hope of the U.N. that the African Union and African leaders will get their act together to address this issue,“ she said.

The United States, Britain and other European countries have widely condemned Zimbabwe’s runoff. The U.S. is pushing for more financial and travel sanctions against Mugabe supporters and is urging the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged the African Union to reject the result of the runoff, and France says it considers Mugabe’s government “illegitimate.“

Charamba had harsh words for Western pressure: “They can go hang. They can go and hang a thousand times.“

He also demanded that Zimbabwe be left to determine its own future.

“The way out is the way defined by the Zimbabwe people free from outside interference, and that is exactly what will resolve the matter,“ he said.

In Zimbabwe, there also were strong doubts about an agreement, even as Tsvangirai left the Dutch Embassy, where he had fled for safety after announcing his withdrawal from the runoff because of state-sponsored violence against his supporters.

In a statement issued Tuesday in Harare, Tendai Biti, a top leader of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party, dismissed speculation that his party and Mugabe’s ZANU-PF were about to conclude an agreement to govern together.

“Nothing can be as malicious and as further from the truth,“ said Biti. “As a matter of fact, there are no talks or discussions taking place between the two parties and most importantly, there is no agreement in the offing.“

During public speeches at the summit’s opening Monday, most AU leaders spoke of the “challenges” Zimbabwe is facing and none said anything harsh about Mugabe.

But Jendayi Frazer, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for African affairs, said she believed that in private, the leaders were going to “have very, very strong words for him.“

Key African leaders have long had close ties to Mugabe, renowned as a campaigner against white rule and colonialism and Zimbabwe’s ruler since its independence in 1980. They are also reluctant to be seen as backing the West — former colonial rulers — against a fellow African.

Meanwhile, Egyptian security ramped up restrictions Tuesday on journalists covering the summit after a British TV crew got into a verbal exchange with Mugabe the previous day. Many reporters were not allowed to leave the press area.

The confrontation began when British network ITN approached Mugabe outside the conference hall and asked how he could regard himself as president. The Zimbabwean leader responded that it was on the same basis as Brown’s being the British prime minister.

Mugabe then said the reporter asked “stupid questions.“ TV footage showed Mugabe’s guards pushing the reporter away.

___

Associated Press Writer Sabrina Shankman in Johannesburg, South Africa contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.