Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe threatened to bring down ``the full wrath of the law'' against anyone who disturbs Zimbabwean peace and stability.
The threat, made in a speech on Tuesday, came after calls by the country's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, for street protests to topple Mugabe's 26-year rule.
"Anyone who dares go against the law, ... dares lead any group of persons to embark on a campaign of violence or terrorist activity, will be inviting the full wrath of the law to descend mercilessly on him and, or on those who follow him," Mugabe, 82, said in a rambling and repetitive speech broadcast on state television to mark the 26th anniversary of independence.
PHOTO: AFP
This year's festivities come at a time of deepening economic crisis and a rapidly widening gap between Zimbabwe's rich elite and poor majority. Unemployment exceeds 70 percent, inflation is over 900 percent, and the country faces acute shortages of food, gasoline and other imports.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, a leading Mugabe critic, says at least 10,000 people have died of hunger and malnutrition-related diseases. He accuses officials from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front of denying aid to opposition supporters.
Critics blame Zimbabwe's economic woes on the seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans since 2,000.
But Mugabe, in his speech on Tuesday, pointed the finger at a "spate of devastating droughts and an evil program of unjustified sanctions" by Western nations. The US and EU have imposed travel bans and other targeted sanctions against Mugabe and members of his regime.
Mugabe, who has led the country since independence from Britain in 1980, said on Tuesday: "We are happy that no one anywhere in the drought-stricken areas was allowed to die of hunger."
Mugabe also vowed to press ahead with plans to place other economic sectors still under foreign ownership in the hands of the state or black Zimbabweans, including forcing major platinum producers with multibillion dollar development projects underway to sell at least 51 percent of their shares.
"Nonrenewable resources are ours in the first place," Mugabe said. "You, the investor, will get a reward, yes, but that reward will be balanced by what we keep for ourselves."
Thousands of ruling party supporters were bused in from across the country for a lavish ceremony at the National Sports Stadium, but the 80,000-capacity facility was only half full.
Mugabe arrived half an hour later than announced and was greeted with a flypast of Chinese fighter jets. Much of Zimbabwe's once formidable British-trained air force has been grounded by Western embargoes that make getting spare parts difficult.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s