Military

DATE= 02/25/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=RICE / ZIMBABWE (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-300047

BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS

DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says President Bush is trying to impose his will on weaker nations. V-O-A's Scott Stearns reports, the White House says Mr. Mugabe's economic mismanagement is making life worse for the Zimbabwean people.

TEXT: In a speech at the Non-Aligned summit in Malaysia Tuesday, Mr. Mugabe said President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are imperialists engaged in what he calls a "new form of colonialism" over developing countries.

The Zimbabwean leader says Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair have turned themselves into what he calls "hunting bulldogs as they sniff for Third World blood."

The United States and Britain have been some of the harshest critics of the Mugabe government's seizure of white-owned farms, as well as the alleged rigging of last year's presidential elections, which kept Mr. Mugabe in power.

White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice says the international community must make clear to President Mugabe that he cannot continue to oppress his own people.

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The world needs to unite and send a strong message to Zimbabwe that the appalling behavior of the Mugabe government, not just in the way that the elections were handled but in everything leading-up to the elections is really not condoned or appropriate and can not be accepted in the modern world.

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President Mugabe drew protests at a Franco-African summit in Paris last week when French President Jacques Chirac got a waiver of a European Union travel ban prohibiting the Zimbabwean leader from visiting Europe.

In an interview with V-O-A, Ms. Rice said it was a "very bad thing" for France to host President Mugabe, but she says it was a French meeting so it is their decision.

More important, she says, Mr. Mugabe's poor human rights record and economic mismanagement is making life worse for Zimbabweans at a time when President Bush is increasing development assistance to reward African countries investing in health and education, good governance, and economic reform.

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Mugabe is the exact opposite of that. And so not only Europe and the United States, but also the African countries themselves need to stand up and say that this is simply unacceptable in the 21st century.

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President Mugabe says Washington is guilty of setting double standards by pushing to disarm Iraq without taking similar steps to give-up U-S weapons of mass destruction. (SIGNED)

NEB/SS/MAR