Mugabe 'incredibly dangerous'

2008-07-02 07:27

Cape Town - Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe would retaliate with more violence if too much pressure was exerted on him, his biographer Heidi Holland warned on Tuesday.

Addressing a seminar at the University of Cape Town, Holland said the Zimbabwean leader was an emotionally insecure person who reacted with violence at the slightest provocation.

"He is emotionally incapable of accepting defeat. The key to understanding Mugabe is his urge for revenge," Holland said.

Holland interviewed Mugabe on several occasions prior to publishing her book. She described Mugabe as "emotionally fragile" with a tendency to unleash violence on those who opposed his will.

Mugabe 'emotionally fragile'

She cited the killing of several thousand of Ndebele people in the 1980s, Mugabe's constant verbal denouncement of Britain, and the recent violence targeting those who did not vote for him the recent election, as evidence that Mugabe was capable of doing anything in his power to harm his opponents.

"He is an incredibly dangerous man," she said.

As retaliation to the British government's refusal to fund the Zimbabwean's land redistribution programme in the 90s, Mugabe unleashed violence on white farmers.

Holland said it was unlikely that Mugabe would stop persecuting white farmers as long as Britain continued to ignore him.

"It is the British who must talk to Mugabe," she said. Mugabe's tendency to respond to defeat with violence had a lot to do with his lonely childhood.

His father deserted him while he was still a young boy, and his mother put him under a lot of pressure to perform well at school.

"He buried his pain in his books - he has been emotionally fragile since his childhood," Holland said.

- SAPA