Mugabe warns on unrest, says economy reviving

Mugabe warns on unrest, says economy reviving

• Mutambara: a technocratic challenge for Zimbabwe

• Mugabe says critics playing with fire

• Poverty bites as Zimbabwe marks self rule

• Mutambara: we can run where others walked

• Tsvangirai: 26 years of chaos and trauma

• On the question of an unfinished revolution

• Nobuhle Nyathi: Matshazi's mind frozen in bad theories

• Your Shouts!: Kwinjeh ridiculed Africans

• Tony Namate: Matshazi's abject Pan-Africanism

• Julius Dewa: Mugabe has scathed African pride

• Matshazi: 'Kwinjeh ridiculed Africans'

• Mugabe's celebratory rant as Zim turns 25

• Zim gone 25 years backwards, says MDC

• Kwinjeh: Happy birthday to an unfinished revolution

• No cheer as Zim turns 24

• Independence war mass graves found

• Mugabe calls on exiles to return

By Staff Reporter

ROBERT Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, warned opponents not to hold anti-government protests, saying they should instead support efforts to end an eight-year economic recession.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition, early this year called for street protests to force out Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African country since it gained independence from Britain in 1980.

The MDC said unrest was driven by anger over the world's highest inflation rate of around 1 000%, unemployment of more than 70% and shortages of fuel, food and foreign currency. The opposition blames the crisis on the government.

Mugabe in April vowed to crush any protests.

Mugabe accuses Britain of leading a Western onslaught against Harare as punishment for the government's seizures of white-owned farms for blacks. He has branded Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, and his party puppets of the West.

The 82-year-old leader said the economy had weathered sanctions by Britain, the US and other Western nations and would rebound in step with improved agricultural output and the support of African and Asian countries.

"Let me ... thank all our international partners for supporting us in various ways through a time of undeserved ostracism and unjustified smear campaigns orchestrated by the Blair and Bush regimes," Mugabe said.

Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk more than 40% in eight years, and thousands have fled to South Africa and other countries for work. - Reuters
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
debate@newzimbabwe.com