DATE=5/3/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ZIMBABWE / MUGABE (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-261932
BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA
DATELINE=HARARE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has
rejected international criticism of his government
over recent political violence tied to the seizures of
white-owned farms by black war veterans and other
landless poor. V-O-A Southern Africa Correspondent
Alex Belida reports from Harare.
TEXT: At the official launch of his ruling ZANU P-F
party's manifesto for the country's coming
parliamentary elections, Mr. Mugabe sharply attacked
members of the foreign news media for what he
suggested has been biased reporting on Zimbabwe's land
crisis. He brushed aside reports painting his
government as tyrannical, saying such criticism would
not sway the opinions of Zimbabweans.
/// MUGABE ACT ONE ///
Yes, you're fighting for the whites, you
journalists by and large who are here and you
think the fight will be won in the C-N-N or the
B-B-C. No, it will be won here in Zimbabwe,
right here. (Cheers) So project us as the evil
doers, as the worst of autocrats, anything you
like. But our people know us. We have been
with our people for decades and we stand for the
interests of our people. We are leaders out of
our people, we serve their interests, and the
greatest of these interests is land.
/// END ACTUALITY ///
Mr. Mugabe also directed sharp criticism at the
recently formed Movement for Democratic Change, the
opposition party viewed by most analysts as the first
serious threat to ZANU P-F's uninterrupted monopoly on
power for the past 20 years since Zimbabwe's
independence from Britain. He called M-D-C leaders
amateurs and suggested they are no match for the
ruling party.
/// MUGABE ACT TWO ///
We are masters at the game and the M-D-C, they
are amateurish. Well, amateurs and
professionals play different games, don't they?
/// END ACTUALITY ///
Mr. Mugabe decried the violence that has claimed the
lives of M-D-C supporters as well as white farm owners
in recent weeks. But he suggested the opposition and
white commercial interests are conspiring against his
government and have brought trouble on themselves.
/// MUGABE ACT THREE ///
You think really we are a foolish lot? Watch
the whites, white farmers support the M-D-C,
fund it in every way possible, regiment its
workers on the farms and start military training
programs on the farms and we sit by and do
nothing because it's all in the interests of
freedom, the freedom of the individual?
Goodness me, study our history, where have we
come from? (Cheers)
/// END ACTUALITY ///
The opposition and white farmers have accused the
ruling party of resorting to violence and other forms
of intimidation to curtail the M-D-C's freedom to
campaign for the coming parliamentary elections. No
date has yet been announced for the balloting.
(Signed)
NEB/BEL/JWH/KL
03-May-2000 11:24 AM EDT (03-May-2000 1524 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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