20100810
africanews

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has extended a hand of friendship to the European Union and the United States during the celebration of the southern African country's National Heroes' Day. His conciliatory speech follows a week after he told the US and EU to "go to hell" at his sister's funeral.

"We seek friendship not enmity, togetherness not apartness," he told thousands of people gathered to celebrate National Heroes' Day.

He inspected a guard of honour, and stood to attention as cannons boomed and jet fighters flew overhead.

Mugabe did insist however that the EU and the US were still in the wrong, and that they want to continue to make Zimbabweans suffer by maintaining their targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe, including travel bans and asset freezes.

The president said he was appealing to the EU to think again.

Zimbabwe has been under Western sanctions since 2002, because of human rights abuses and alleged election rigging. Around 200 people, many of them opposition supporters, were killed in 2008.

Yesterday Mugabe said no one would be brought to book for election violence. He said the current efforts aimed at national healing were not supposed to ferret out culprits for punishment.

Mugabe said the process was meant to ensure Zimbabweans avoid "the deadly snare of political conflict".