20100801
africanews

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has descended on Western powers on Sunday over sanctions imposed on his ruling ZANU-PF party. The controversial leader said the European Union and United States of America were simply bent on driving him out of power.

Addressing thousands of people at the burial of his sister Sabina, Mugabe accused his Western opponents of not recognising Zimbabwe as an independent state of native black citizens with rights over its land and other natural economic resources, according to a Reuters report.

Brussels and Washington slapped financial sanctions on state firms and travel restrictions on Mugabe and dozens of his associates nearly 10 years ago after a violent re-election campaign and at the start of sometimes violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms for black resettlement.

On Sunday, he unleashed another tirade against his critics, saying they were using sanctions as part of a plot to impose their political will on the southern African nation.
"We say to hell, to hell, hell with them," he said angrily. "Sanctions must go, and they must go. They are hurting our people regardless of political affiliation."

"We are still being treated as if we don't own this country. They want to tell us, do A, B and C of that, remove so-and-so and they are now saying Mugabe must go first," he said. "Whoever told them that their will is above that of the people of Zimbabwe?"

Mugabe, whom many blame for ruining one of Africa's most promising economies, said his ZANU-PF party was committed to a black empowerment programme designed to increase black ownership across all sectors of the economy.

"This is the fight we must fight in an all-Zimbabwe way," he said.