Mugabe may stand for another term

Mugabe may stand for another term

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By Michael McDonough

AFTER 24 years in power, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said in an interview broadcast Monday he will stay in office as long as his people want him to, but he does not plan to seek re-election in 2008.

The 80-year-old Mugabe also told Sky News TV that his country, in the midst of its worst economic and political crisis since independence from Britain, will have a bountiful harvest this year, negating the need for continued international food relief for millions of Zimbabweans.

During his rare interview with a Western TV station, Mugabe also lashed out at President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the war in Iraq, saying "they deceived the world with lies" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and now "the chickens have come back to roost."

Mugabe, one of Africa's most combative and enduring rulers, has said previously that he would not seek another term and would like to retire from politics.

However, when asked how long he intended to remain in office, Mugabe said, "For as long as the people want me to stay, but not for eternity, of course."

He also said he did not believe he would be a candidate in the next presidential election.

"I also want to rest and do a bit of writing," he said, adding that he did not have a successor in mind.

Mugabe, Zimbabwe's only leader since independence from Britain, was elected to another six-year term in March 2002, but opposition leaders and independent observers maintain he used intimidation and vote-rigging to continue his authoritarian rule.

Zimbabwe faces acute shortages of food, medicine, hard currency, gasoline and other essential goods. The often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks, coupled with erratic rains, have crippled the agriculture of a nation that once was a regional bread basket.

U.N. agencies have said about 5.3 million Zimbabweans will need food aid in the next year following the collapse of local production.

But Mugabe rejected that prediction, defending government claims that Zimbabwe expects a bumper harvest of 2.4 million tons of maize, taking away the need for international food relief for millions of people.

"We are producing it this year, definitely. Our estimates are there and they are showing us we will have enough food for the country and with a surplus," he said.

Opposition leaders, churches and human rights organizations allege that Mugabe plans to use food supplies as a political tool to ensure victory in scheduled March 2005 general elections. They say less than 700,000 tons have been harvested.

In his interview, Mugabe also slammed Bush and Blair for going to war in Iraq.

"They knew they were wrong by deciding to attack Iraq, they deceived the world with lies, lies of mass deception, by telling them that there were weapons of mass destruction, and they thought the world was going to be cheated for all time," Mugabe said.

"And there you are now, the chickens have come back to roost."

He also said Blair, a strong critic of Zimbabwe's alleged human rights abuses, has done "mad things ... and the world now is in turmoil."

Mugabe has accused Blair of neocolonialist meddling in Zimbabwean affairs.

Another critic of alleged human rights violations under Mugabe is Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts against apartheid in South Africa.

Mugabe described Tutu as "an angry, evil and embittered little bishop, you see, who thinks that his own views should hold.

"He was a frightened man during the apartheid era and the little he did was perhaps just to criticize and criticize even in an innocent way, apartheid," Mugabe said.
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