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No 'outside approval' for Zim
29/03/2003 22:17 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe does not require outside approval to enforce law and order, President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying on Saturday, following criticism of his government.
"It is now time for law and order to have the upper hand and we will not seek the approval of outsiders to enforce law and order in our country," Mugabe was quoted as saying in the state-controlled Herald.
The comments come after the US accused Mugabe's government on Monday of unleashing "unprecedented violence" against domestic opponents, following a widely followed two-day strike by opposition supporters in protest at alleged misgovernance.
And on Thursday South African President Thabo Mbeki, known for his "quiet diplomacy" towards Harare, told his country's National Assembly that Pretoria would not agree to actions that denied the Zimbabwean people's right to demonstrate.
But Mugabe brushed aside the criticism in an address on Friday to the Central Committee of his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the Herald reported.
"After all, some of the foreigners have been aiding and abetting the creation of instability and disorder here and are thus part of the lawlessness we have witnessed," he said.
Mugabe has accused Britain, the United States and other Western countries of sponsoring opposition "violence and terrorism" in Zimbabwe.
A peaceful work stoppage called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on March 18-19 was marked by the burning and stoning of vehicles and the torching of a ZANU-PF office.
The opposition says the government retaliated by arresting or assaulting hundreds of its supporters.
The opposition has threatened a further show of mass action if the government fails to respond by March 31 to its concerns over human rights, democracy and governance.
Tensions are running high in the southern African country ahead of by-elections this weekend in two low-income Harare suburbs, which Mugabe says his party must take back from the MDC.
He told the Central Committee on Friday that the opposition party had been imposed on Zimbabwe by foreigners and was not a genuine expression of the people's will.
"It should thus be confined to the electoral scrap heap and I hope this happens tomorrow and Sunday," he said.
- AFX
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