Bush wants 'freedom' for Zimbabwe

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By Lebo Nkatazo

UNITED States President George Bush has kept Zimbabwe on his international policy radar, declaring that the "demands of justice" require the country's "freedom" from President Robert Mugabe's "dictatorship".

In his State of the Union Address delivered on Tuesday night the United States president lumped Zimbabwe, alongside other so-called "outposts of tyranny" – Syria, Burma, North Korea and Iran.

Bush said: “Far from being a hopeless dream, the advance of freedom is the great story of our time. In 1945, there were about two dozen lonely democracies in the world.

"Today, there are 122. And we're writing a new chapter in the story of self-government -- with women lining up to vote in Afghanistan, and millions of Iraqis marking their liberty with purple ink, and men and women from Lebanon to Egypt debating the rights of individuals and the necessity of freedom.

"At the start of 2006, more than half the people of our world live in democratic nations.”

He added: “And we do not forget the other half -- in places like Syria and Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran -- because the demands of justice, and the peace of this world, require their freedom, as well."

During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations committees in 2005, US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Zimbabwe but did not mention Syria, although adding Cuba and Belarus to the countries Bush fingered as reeling under dictatorship.

She branded them as “outposts of tyranny”, sparking a volley of attacks from the Zimbabwe government which accused he of being a "puppet of the slave master".

Zimbabwe's security Minister Didymus Mutasa was swift in condemning Bush's lastest remarks, describing him as a "bully".

Mutasa said: "We should not and cannot allow warmongers like Bush to
tarnish the image of paragons of peace and democracy like President Mugabe.
We are not moved by his statements. If anything, we are proud that we are
not an ally of the neo-colonialist Bush, whom I can only describe as a
bully."
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