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'Racist Merkel should shut up'
10/12/2007 11:41 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe branded German Chancellor Angela Merkel a "racist" and a "fascist", for her comment that the situation in Harare "damages the image of the new Africa", say reports.
Minister of Information Sikhanyiso Ndlovu lashed out at Merkel for her comments at the recent European Union-Africa Summit in Lisbon, saying: "She should shut up on Zimbabwe or ship out."
The state-run Herald quoted Ndlovu as saying: "Zimbabwe is not a colony of Germany. This is racism of the first order by the German head of state.
"President Robert Mugabe is no doubt an indisputable icon of African nationalism, pan-Africanism, a revolutionary and liberator of Zimbabwe together with late vice-president doctor Joshua Nkomo."
He said Merkel had "dirty hands" and was not qualified to comment on Zimbabwe.
Tom Cruiser 'couldn't film in Berlin'
Ndlovu said Merkel had demonstrated her "Nazi inclinations" when she banned the Scientology Church in Germany and stopped Hollywood star Tom Cruise from shooting a film on Klaus Schenk von Stauffenberg who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944.
Scientology was not banned in Germany, but last week the regional interior ministers of Germany's 16 states agreed to investigate the possibility.
Germany's authorities initially denied the makers of Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise, permission to film at the Bendlerblock in Berlin, where von Stauffenberg was executed by the Nazis, which was a national monument.
But they eventually relented. Ndlovu said Mugabe's presence at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon showed up some European heads of states.
EU sends 'lesser envoy' to summit
Ndlovu said: "He has attended the summit in his own right as a statesman of repute. At the summit he has taken centre stage, making some Europeans heads of governments and his detractors, including Angela Merkel, look like dwarfs."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown boycotted the summit over Mugabe's presence, but the Zimbabwean leader said what he called a "gang of four" from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden had acted on his behalf.
Ndlovu said Britain had sent Baroness Amos, a "black sister" and lesser representative to the high summit. "If she has a soul, she would understand that she is being used by her master against her own people."
Ndlovu accused Europe of treating Africa as an extension of its own territory, describing the summit as a second Scramble for Africa, in view of EU policies which he said were skewed against Africa.
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