Angry Mugabe tells US ambassador to "go to hell"

Reuters
8-10-05

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe told the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe to "go to hell" on Tuesday, after the envoy blamed the country's economic and political crisis on mismanagement and corrupt rule.

State media said the ambassador, Christopher Dell, risked expulsion from the southern African country for his "undiplomatic" criticism of the government in a public lecture.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said it had asked Mugabe for his reaction to the comments.

"The president said the ambassador must go to hell. The president said: 'I cannot even spell the word Dell with a "D" but an "H" and that is where Dell should go'," a ZBC correspondent said during a news bulletin.

Dell said last week that Mugabe's government was responsible for plunging Zimbabwe into a crisis which had left it with soaring poverty and chronic food shortages.

Mugabe, 81 and in power for 25 years, embarked on a controversial drive of seizing and redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks in 2000, and earlier this year tens of thousands of people were made homeless after the government ordered the demolition of shacks and "illegal houses".

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli backed the ambassador's comments and said the Zimbabwean government had not lodged a complaint. Zimbabwean state media said the Foreign Ministry was dealing with the matter.

"I think our ambassador and his comments very fairly and accurately reflect the policy of the United States," Ereli said.

Mugabe's relations with many Western powers, including the United States and the European Union, have soured in the last few years over charges of human rights abuses and vote-rigging.

But Mugabe says he has been targeted by foreign opponents led by Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler Britain for his nationalistic policies and says most of Africa is on his side in which he describes as a struggle against imperialism.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...archived=False

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This idiot Mugabe is one of those s bags i hate a lot.
He will end up in dust bin of history like Saddam, Chaosecu, Milosevic et al

extra extra read all about it: world tells mugabe to go to hell. mugabe continues breathing. world rather disappointed

we are just waiting for one country to stand up and take the initiative

how much does he have to provoke and be a moron before something happens?

What a bloody mess.
When is something gunna be done about this crap.

The bloody honest truth is that no major power gives a about Africa mate except for the countries with the oil. They will let this little mosquito buzz about and then it will fly into the light and terminate itself. I think we have enough on our plate without worrying about some inconsequential dictator rigging elections and appropriating farmland.

Originally Posted by bulldogg

The bloody honest truth is that no major power gives a about Africa mate except for the countries with the oil.

And in the meantime Al Qaeda continues on its deep penetration in the continent (look at Somalia today, look at Nigeria, Kenya). A huge recruitment camp for them.

IG have you had a chance to see the BBC special "The Power of Nightmares"? I believe there are fundamentalist muslim groups making inroads into the poor and hopeless communities of Africa but I remain dubious on the whole "Al Qaeda" as an organised body with command and control elements.

Nope, haven't seen that one. I wouldn't be too dubious about Al Qaeda cells and recruiting schemes in countries like Somalia, Niger, Chad, Mali, Sudan, Ethiopia.
But like you said yes a lot more organizations are active in Africa, al Qaeda being just one of them. What worries me is their high operational ability to adapt itself to new scenarios.

I read a very interesting article with an interview to our Foreign Minister about the topic, and the name of Al Qaeda and Bin Laden is repeated seven times: http://www.panorama.it/mondo/capire_...-A020001033258
But the very big question , my friend, is: Why am I linking this if it is in Italian?

Because I have Babelfish and friends...

I would highly recommend the series, three or four hours in total. It would make for some intelligent discussion if nothing else.

If I remember correctly, didn't the UN back Mugabe and Enkomo(SP?)back in the 70's, stating that one man's terrorist is another mans freedom fighter?

I'm sure knowing that made all the difference to the missionaries and farmers that were hacked to death.

Mugabe has just reverted to type, nothing else.

Interesting.