Mugabe unmoved by criticism

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe yesterday defended his Government's crackdown on what it calls illegal settlements - a drive that has left thousands homeless and drawn condemnation from the West.

Two children were crushed to death this month during the campaign critics say has exacerbated an economic crisis, marked by severe food and fuel shortages, unemployment of about 70 per cent and inflation of over 140 per cent. But Mugabe repeated it was part of a bid to fight crime and clean up cities.

"As much as 3 trillion Zimbabwe dollars (about NZ$4 billion) has been committed to this programme ... There is a clear construction and reconstruction programme," he said.

"We pledged to revitalise our cities and towns and to deliver as many as 1.2 million housing units and residential stands by the year 2008. We also undertook to reorganise our SMEs [small and medium business enterprises] so they could grow and expand in an environment that is supportive, clean and decent."

Human rights groups say up to 300,000 have been rendered homeless by the crackdown. The official figure is 120,000.

European Commission President Jose Barroso on Friday joined the United States and Britain in criticism of what has been called "Operation Restore Order".

The operation once again threatened a rift between the West and African nations over how to resolve Zimbabwe's crisis, which critics blame on government mismanagement and a plan to give white-owned farms to landless blacks.

After British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw blamed African leaders on Thursday for not stepping in, an African Union (AU) spokesman said it could not intervene in "an internal matter".

This followed calls by some 120 rights groups, including Amnesty International, for the AU to put the matter on its agenda at an annual summit in Libya on July 4-5.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, leader of the continent's key diplomatic power, has been among those reluctant to speak against Harare for alleged rights abuses, opting for "quiet diplomacy" that has in the past angered the West.

Mugabe said yesterday the criticism was to be expected from those he has blamed for targeting him over his policies. "This, comrades, is the programme which has drawn broadsides, criticism from... our habitual critics, led of course by Britain and as usual supported by the Washington administration and the Government of Australia," said Mugabe, the country's leader since independence from Britain in 1980.

"Even more ridiculous is the fact of the new World Bank president [Paul Wolfowitz], joining in the attack without any first-hand impression of what is going on. What has the World Bank to do with it?"

The United Nations should arrest Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, and put him on trial, Pius Ncube, the outspoken Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, said yesterday, warning of a potential massacre.

Ncube compared Mugabe to Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, whose reign of terror killed millions of people by forcing them from cities into the countryside, an act he said was being repeated in Zimbabwe.

"The United Nations should arrest Mugabe, bring him to trial, insist on free and fair elections," Ncube said. "There's a peasant-ification drive here, something like Pol Pot did."

- REUTERS