Mugabe 'is overstaying'
by
2008-07-06 13:23
Lusaka - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe risks going down in history as a leader who refused to give up power and oppressed his people, Zambian Information Minister Mike Mulongoti said on Saturday.
In an interview with AFP TV, Mulongoti at first paid tribute to Mugabe for "standing up against colonialism" and winning independence for the former Rhodesia in 1980.
"But now you cannot transplant colonialism for oppression. If you oppress people, what's the difference between you and the colonialists?
Unacceptable
"So, I do not know whether - when we write history books - he shall go in the history books as our hero or we should begin to cast doubt as to whether the services he's supposed to have rendered he took away himself by overstaying and doing certain things that were unacceptable in a civilised world."
Zambia was one of the first countries to openly criticise Mugabe, who was sworn in on Sunday for a sixth term after elections denounced as a "farce" by the opposition and Western leaders.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa last year compared the country to "a sinking Titanic" because of its economic crisis.
More recently he said it was "scandalous" for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to remain silent in the face of violence against members of the opposition.
His voice was absent this week among Zimbabwe's detractors at an African Union summit in Egypt, which he missed after suffering a heart attack.
The summit adopted a resolution calling for dialogue between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and the creation of a national unity government.
Mwanawasa, meanwhile, has been transferred to a French hospital, where he remained in intensive care on Saturday.