Mugabe

Born in Uganda, this Archbishop of York says he would not wear one again until Robert Mugabe is no longer leader of Zimbabwe .

Though the local authorities had let me go, there was no guarantee I would avoid being interrogated again by Mugabe's secret police.

Teetotal Mugabe's private party yesterday was hosted by his wife, Grace, 44, and attended by friends and a number of African diplomats.

But on a range of issues Mr Mugabe ensures that his prime minister is often kept out of the loop, in blatant defiance of the GPA.

The AU's response was embraced by Mr Mugabe, which betrays exactly how much notice he is likely to take of any of it.

Since the unity government was set up a year ago, Mr Mugabe has treated Mr Tsvangirai and his party with contempt.

FOR the first time in 28 years of increasingly reckless and vile rule, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe looks as if he may go. But only may.

He said Mr. Mugabe would be declared the winner and all the country's factories would be given to black Zimbabweans.

Before arriving in Zimbabwe from Mozambique early Sunday, the archbishop of Canterbury said he hoped to see President Mugabe on Monday.

Once Mr Mugabe is locked into proper talks, it may no longer be so easy for him to have his way.

He said Mr. Mugabe was unwilling to put the welfare of Zimbabwe and its people first.

And Mr Mbeki seems content to leave Mr Mugabe in place, in the hope that age alone will gradually ease him out.

Mugabe said last December that he was tired of working with the opposition party, which he said "lacked ideology and policies. "

That would be a bit like Robert Mugabe apologising for the British South Africa Company's conduct in the Matabele wars.

It is far from certain that Mr Mugabe will ever accept such a document, let alone stick to its conditions.

Mr Mugabe is clever and malevolent. Mr Tsvangirai is dogged, so far decent, and still by no means sure to prevail. Give him a chance.

With this sort of endorsement ringing in his ears, Mr Mugabe smartly returned to what he knows best: intimidating his opponents.

By agreeing to talk, Mr Tsvangirai is at least offering Mr Mugabe a gracious if necessarily gradual exit.

Some political observers believe incumbent Robert Mugabe is trying to rig the election results to stay in power.

The rest of the region will have to be equally robust if Mr Mugabe is to be coaxed into negotiating with the MDC and its leader.

Even South Africa, whose spineless president, Thabo Mbeki, is still refusing to criticise Mr Mugabe outright, has begun to turn against him.

ROBERT MUGABE appears once again to have wrong-footedvt those who have been trying to oust him.

His surprise candidacy has breathed life into a poll that most observers presumed would be a shoo-in for Mr Mugabe.

Mugabe also said the inclusive government is drawing up a new constitution before new elections.

The EU has refused to recognize the result of the June 27 presidential run-off poll in which Mr. Mugabe was the sole candidate.

There was once a time when Robert Mugabe was the darling of the West among fellow African leaders.

Mr Mugabe's childhood left him with a shaky self-confidence but a ferocious self-discipline.

He said therefore that a deal was only possible if it is signed by all three leaders, Mr. Mugabe, Mr. Tsvangirai, and himself.

The neighbours hope foreign governments will rally generously round the Mugabe-Tsvangirai arrangement to help the Zimbabwean people.

So Friedman's policy of "quantitative easing" , as it is called, still makes good sense. Am I recommending the economics of Robert Mugabe?

When President Robert Mugabe wants to go somewhere, he simply kicks the passengers off one of your jets and takes it.

Speaking to Agence France Presse, spokesman Nelson Chamisa said Mr. Mugabe is trying to hijack the leadership of Zimbabwe.

Biti said he hopes President Mugabe will realize that any run-off would deliver him a smashing defeat.

This would mean preparing for it all over again, which Mr Mugabe unsurprisingly refuses to do.

Some date the start of Mr Mugabe's misrule to the emergence of his rival as the great independence hero of Africa.

But is President Robert Mugabe genuinely ready to share any power?

The project was all the more preposterous because Mugabe's "official" salary as president is only about $57, 000 per year.

He seems to want the awful Robert Mugabe ousted in Zimbabwe, though his pronouncements have varied.

Among the outstanding issues is how Tsvangirai would be appointed prime minister, by Mr. Mugabe or by parliament.

Within months of Mr Mugabe's re-election as president, inflation had reached several billion per cent a year.

The next day Zimbabwe's ruling party, the Zanu-PF, endorsed Mugabe as its candidate for the 2008 presidential election.

Unfortunately, he looks unlikely to win, even if Mr Mugabe were to give him a fair chance of doing so.

Only a few weeks ago, Mr Mugabe landed a power deal with Namibia that should help ease Zimbabwe's crippling power cuts.

Mugabe finally found out about the affair in July when his sister revealed the scandal on her deathbed, it was reported.

Morgan Tsvangirai, prime minister of Zimbabwe, insists that he is now able to joke with his long-time opponent, President Robert Mugabe.

Mr Mugabe seems ready to appoint a cabinet regardless.

Even if Mr Mugabe treated Mr Smith gingerly, he has the blood of many others on his hands.

Zimbabwe's President Mugabe is expected to be among the more than 30 African leaders on hand for the two-day event.

ZANU-PF sources say Mr. Mugabe had hoped the deal would be signed on Sunday and that the parliament would be called on Wednesday.

And the 85-year-old Mr Mugabe continues to call the shots in what is supposed to be a partnership of equals.

Doctor Williams said he'd come to Zimbabwe with the hope of negotiating with Mr Mugabe.

Critics of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe have accused him of giving the best land to ranking members of his government and party.

Despite worldwide calls for censure, the conference refused to condemn Mugabe's leadership and affirmed Zimbabwe's right to noninterference.

Gordon Brown said Robert Mugabe must not be allowed to steal another term in office.

Mr Mugabe, sycophant-surrounded and with his own foreign-currency wallet, is short of neither bread nor baubles, and may do the same.

Mr Mugabe was the star of the region, but then the sun rose.

Commercial farmers in Zimbabwe said they were under a renewed wave of attacks from groups linked to the party of President Robert Mugabe.

He should immediately overhaul the state broadcaster, which has been a virulent mouthpiece for Mr Mugabe.

He praised President Mugabe for delivering Zimbabwe from colonial rule, but said it was now time for the 84-year-old leader to go.

But for that very reason he is still prevented by Mr Mugabe from taking up his appointment.

Mr Mugabe, himself brought up as a Catholic, told clergy who spoke out against him that they were on a "dangerous path" .

One of those expected to attend the inauguration is Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe.

But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown should consider creating a foreign aid package that would be contingent on Mr. Mugabe's departure.

It remains possible that Mr Mugabe's determination to hang on to power at all costs will strengthen the resolve of voters to turf him out.

A judge ruled that the police had no justification for arresting Mr Timba, who was accused of calling Mr Mugabe a liar.

Others who have been fighting Mr Mugabe's regime for years dismiss him because he was in ZANU-PF's leadership for so long.

From his youth, Mr Mugabe had all the ingredients to become a tyrant.

Mr Tsvangirai's decision to get into bed with the despotic Mr Mugabe has been much criticised, not least in his own party.

And everyone knows that an economic rescue package will not be available if Mr Mugabe and his friends are still running the show.

Talk in high places about removing Mr Mugabe, perhaps even by force, is no longer deemed outlandish.

One former cabinet minister, Jonathan Moyo, describes how Mr Mugabe fell into a fierce sulk after rivals suggested he quit, in 2006.

It was Mr Mutambara who briefly emerged as a wild card, with officials from Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF saying he had struck a separate deal.

The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, has pledged to boycott the summit rather than share a table with Mr Mugabe.

In the past decade, President Robert Mugabe and his allies attempted to prop up the economy -- and their government -- by printing money.

Anxious to boost Mr Tsvangirai at the expense of Mr Mugabe, foreign leaders have showered him with praise.

It could be even worse, providing a fig leaf of plausibility for Mr Mugabe to carry on his destructive rule.

Mr Mugabe is certainly still extremely bitter about this period.

In power since independence 31 years ago, Mr Mugabe seems to regard himself as a kind of monarch who must reign until his death.

A portrait of Mr Mugabe hangs on the office wall and he maintains good relations with local officials.

Zimbabwe's political turmoil, and Mr. Mugabe's presence has completely overshadowed the business of this Red Sea resort summit.

Mugabe handed the U. S-based swimmer the cash at a ceremony in Harare carried live on state television.

Mugabe has unleashed a campaign of beatings, mass arrests and shootings of his political opponents.

It is an old story in Africa, where Mr Mugabe is but the latest model of a powerdemented tyrant.

IF YOU take President Robert Mugabe's recent declaration at face value, Zimbabwe will have another general election by the end of next year.

Mugabe also repeated what he has said several times this year, that there should be no more political violence in Zimbabwe.

On Saturday, during rallies in high density suburbs in Harare, President Mugabe blamed businessmen for what he called exorbitant prices.

Apart from the economy, the situation on the ground has barely changed at all, with Mr Mugabe holding on to the reins of real power.

But so far Mr Tsvangirai has refused to accept a deal that could leave Mr Mugabe still wielding most of the power.

It is a post reinvented for the leader of the country's main opposition party under a deal in which Mr Mugabe is meant to share power.

And the last is the state-owned Zimbabwe Papers group which publishes The Herald, a newspaper aligned to President Mugabe's ZANU-PF.

Mr. Mugabe had been jeered and heckled by MDC legislators Tuesday during his opening address at parliament.

To South Africa and its Truth and Reconciliation Commission compare the barbarism and desolation of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Some of those mercenaries are from Zimbabwe, members of Robert Mugabe's presidential guard regiment.

It is widely considered that Mugabe stole the elections from him in 2002 and again in 2008.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai also hoped for the early lifting of unfair sanctions on Zimbabwe by certain countries.

The U. S. ambassador to Zimbabwe has predicted that President Robert Mugabe will soon fall from power.

For the Mugabe pattern is in danger of infecting many parts of Africa.

Mr Mugabe's supporters have accused him of coordinating a media campaign against the president.

This may be the toughest challenge yet to Mr Mugabe, whom his party endorsed in December despite rising dissatisfaction in ZANU-PF ranks.

The British Minister Mark Malloch Brown bluntly told reporters "Mr. Mugabe has to go. "

Under a power-sharing deal, Robert Mugabe remains president, but more than half the cabinet posts are shared among opposition parties.

When white farmers threw their weight behind the opposition in the late 1990s, Mr Mugabe encouraged the war veterans to grab land.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe was among the handful of African leaders who travelled to Kampala.

Mr Mugabe may cling to power for a while, but his grip is weaker.

This kind of arrangement would provide for an amnesty for human-rights abusers, including Mr Mugabe.

Equally notable was the failure of Mr Mugabe, their commander-in-chief, to comment on their snub.

Others say this will not stop Mr. Mugabe's campaign of violence and that he will carry on until the MDC has disappeared altogether.

Images of Zimbabwe provided evidence for a lawsuit against President Robert Mugabe.

Mr Mbeki still waffles and wobbles, but opinion in his ruling African National Congress is hardening against Mr Mugabe.

Mr. Mugabe addressed supporters at the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front Party's annual conference in Bindura.

But Mr Mugabe's recent declaration that an election must be held next year offers a fresh chance to break the deadlock.

Earlier in the day, a spokesman for Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe rejected western criticism of the presidential election.

Things might be different if a trusted outsider were available to mediate between Mr Mugabe and the opposition.

President Robert Mugabe launched his re-election campaign on Sunday accusing Tsvangirai of extensive political violence.

Mr Mugabe told a crowd of supporters that only God could remove him from power.

The only person who profits from these divisions is Mr Mugabe himself.

Zimbabwe's neighbor Botswana argued that Zimbabwe and Mr. Mugabe should be barred from membership in the African Union and SADC.

Rice said it is time for Zimbabwe to move on after years of mis-rule by the government of President Robert Mugabe.

The funds are likely to benefit selected institutions that consolidate Mugabe and Zanu-PF's stranglehold on power.

If Zimbabweans take a hint from Egypt, the Mugabe dictatorship's days may be numbered.

Mr Mugabe may not turn a quick profit, but he probably isn't going to take a bath either.

But pinning down Mr Mugabe and assessing his weakness has proved remarkably difficult over the years.

Mr Mugabe, for his part, insists that the opposition recognise his flawed re-election.

Mr Obama also refused to lift the personal sanctions imposed on Mr Mugabe and other members of his regime nine years ago.

Mugabe had already run roughshod over the power-sharing agreement by appointing 61 ministers instead of the agreed 31, Makumbe said.

Ban urged President Mugabe to, in his words, "leave his legacy in a positive way. "

Mr. Mugabe on Friday questioned which African countries "would have the courage" to order a military intervention.

The President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe has told his supporters to accept the new power sharing government and not complain too much.

Officials say new U. S. sanctions are possible if President Robert Mugabe fails to give the opposition a meaningful share of authority.

The United States has called Mr. Mugabe's inauguration illegitimate.

The alleged details of Mugabe's spending come after the president made a series of high profile overseas trips.

Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a government minister on suspicion of undermining the authority of President Robert Mugabe.

Once they lock Mr Mugabe into publicly accepting election conditions, the sanctions should be lifted.

Arthur Mutambara, the faction leader with whom Mr. Mugabe had reportedly signed the deal, denied any such arrangement on Wednesday.

So far, Mr Mugabe and his circle have not seemed to care what the world thinks.

The European Union Tuesday tightened sanctions against Zimbabwe president, Robert Mugabe.

South Africa's government has been heavily criticised for not doing more to hasten the end of President Robert Mugabe's disastrous regime.

Mr. Mugabe admits his loyalists killed thousands of oppositon supporters in southern Zimbabwe in the early 1980's.

President Robert Mugabe and a large entourage went to New York to attend the annual opening session of the UN's General Assembly.

When some of the farmers, in the late 1990s, started supporting Zimbabwe's opposition, Mr Mugabe felt betrayed by London.

After hours of argument, Mr Mugabe agreed to withdraw six of his names.

Plainly, Mr Mugabe has abided only by those parts of the GPA that suit him.

In truth, though, Mr Mbeki will probably struggle to make much headway with Mr Mugabe, who despises the South African president.

Mr Tsvangirai's party may yet reject the deal, as it lets Mr Mugabe control the key ministries.

When Zanu realises that they have to jettison Mugabe, then maybe something will happen, but the outlook is pretty gloomy.

Mr. Tsvangirai, who has been away from Zimbabwe for a month, says he won the March 29th contest with Mr. Mugabe outright.

Since those SADC mediated laws were amended in January, Mr. Mugabe passed a decree allowing police back inside polling stations.

Beijing's close ties to the regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe could also end abruptly, if the ailing despot falls from power.

Why should Mr Mugabe even consider meeting this array of conditions, when he has so blatantly flouted or rejected them in the past?

Mugabe and Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe thanked for China's precious support of Zimbabwe's struggle for national liberation.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has prostate cancer which has spread to other organs, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The travel ban does not stop Mr. Mugabe from traveling to international organization meetings such as the United Nations.

Britain and the West should offer to lift sanctions if Mr Mugabe accepts unrestricted international election monitoring.

Few can imagine Mr Mugabe, Zimbabwe's dictator for 30 years, ever quietly retiring to the country to tend to his cattle.

President Robert Mugabe's office says the legality of the publication is being investigated.

But in typically iron- fisted fashion, President Robert Mugabe's regime is treating people carrying cash as criminals.

The talks between Tsvangirai, Mugabe and smaller MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara stalled on Tuesday night.

Rice stopped short of flatly calling for the departure of President Mugabe, who has run the country since independence.

Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Kim Jong-il of North Korea are as well.

After three decades of undisputed rule, the accord calls for Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party to share power with the opposition. Mr.

In March, both were arrested, tortured by Mr. Mugabe's secret police and then paraded together before a court before being released.

Mr Mugabe and his ZANU-PF will still control the army and probably the feared intelligence service.

They await trial in June, facing charges of possessing indecent material and insulting the country's president, Robert Mugabe.

The fact is that to condemn Mugabe is no betrayal of the struggle he led against white-minority rule.

Perhaps Mr Mugabe considered his white predecessor a spent force; more serious opponents were put down brutally.

Yet, with Mr Mugabe still holding the main levers of power, violence and intimidation have not abated.

He recently warmly welcomed in Dar es Salaam both Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and the Swiss-based World Economic Forum, a club of capitalists.

SW Radio Africa offers news coverage and political talk shows, with topics ranging from women's rights to religion to Mugabe.

Then you have in Zimbabwe the first election under Robert Mugabe a year ago.

Critics have linked Zimbabwe's economic decline to Mugabe's 2000 orders that farms be seized from whites and handed over to poor blacks.

Mr. Mugabe noted that the agreement contains elements that neither he nor the opposition liked.

Why, they ask, should the thugs round Mr Mugabe behave any differently next time, especially when their own ill-gotten gains are at stake?

Some African activists worry that Beijing still sometimes props up ancient autocrats like Mugabe.

Robert Mugabe forced his rival out of the race.

It would be nice to believe that at 83 Mr Mugabe belongs to Africa's past.

Mr Mugabe says that indigenization "recognises our sovereign right of ownership" .

Some also argue that letting Mr Mugabe in effect pick his successor would make him likelier to step down.

It should call on its members not to recognise Mr Mugabe as president or his party as the government.

President Robert Mugabe continues to insist the presidential runoff poll will be held Friday as planned, even though Mr.

Still, the SADC's official show of support for Mr Mugabe has boosted his chances of survival, at any rate in the short run.

Senegal and Uganda also favored strong action against Mr. Mugabe than the relatively neutral position taken in the resolution.

Charamba was speaking on the sidelines of the African Union summit, where Mr. Mugabe was warmly received by many heads of state.

Morgan Tsvangirai claims he beat President Robert Mugabe at the polls earlier this month.

EU ministers also agreed to toughen sanctions against Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe.

But it seems clear that most African governments will stay away if Mr Mugabe is excluded.

But heeding disagreeable election results is for wimps, judging by the attitude of Kenya's Mwai Kibaki or Zimbabwe's Mr Mugabe.

Depriving Mr Mugabe's cronies of trips to a decent country that works could have a salutary effect.

With no opposition, Mr Mugabe won 85% of the vote in the runoff, but many were forced to vote for him.

These mines are under export controls following allegations of human rights abuses by Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

Mr Mugabe is also a shrewd performer, switching from Shona to English to send different messages to different audiences.

Mr Mugabe's government recently banned all political rallies and the regime has become increasingly more repressive and brutal.

Mr. Mugabe's spokesman called Mr. Tsvangirai's remarks politically motivated.

Even if Mr Mugabe's senior security men wanted to launch a coup, it is uncertain that the rank and file would obey them.

As the delegation left, I asked Mr. Mugabe if he had any thoughts of stepping down.

Behind its official policy of united support for Mr Mugabe, the regional grouping is divided.

Saviour Kasukuwere, Mr Mugabe's indigenisation minister, has now sent an ultimatum to a dozen foreign-owned groups.

The media in Zimbabwe is dominated by state-owned enterprises all of which remain loyal to Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party.

Even so, that hardly proves "good old Smithy" right, any more than Mr Mugabe's tyranny diminishes Mr Smith's.

With no opposition, Mr Mugabe won85%of the vote in runoff, but many were forced to vote for him.

A majority of Zimbabweans, led by the then-six-month-old MDC, turned down a new constitution designed by Mr. Mugabe in 2000.

The first and easiest act is to refuse to recognise any administration led by Mr Mugabe.

Astonishingly, Mr Mugabe got more bouquets than brickbats .

On July 3rd South Africa, China and Russia were expected to defeat proposed UN sanctions targeted at members of Mr Mugabe's regime.

Mugabe's Zanu-PF party denies accusations of looting and abuses, while Biti blames smugglers for robbing the country of much-needed revenue.

The sum was inherited from my late husband who was assassinated by Robert Mugabe's aides in view of acquiring his land and property.

Mr Mugabe is unlikely to relent unless under serious, concerted pressure.

Where Mr Mugabe himself stands in all this is unclear. He has never named an heir-apparent.

Or slapping sanctions on Robert Mugabe, with no African present?

Could he pose a serious challenge to President Robert Mugabe's hitherto firm grip on power?

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe has called homosexuals "worse than dogs and pigs" .

Many farmers and workers attending the ZANU-PF rally now occupy white-owned land given to them by Mugabe in a process that began in 2000.

Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF has been anxious to get negotiations under way, perhaps to prevent the adoption this week of United Nations sanctions.

In Zimbabwe, even opponents of President Robert Mugabe welcome China's focus on commerce that doesn't link aid to politics.

The ten seats his faction has in the 210-member Parliament could hold the balance of power between Mr Mugabe's lot and Mr Tsvangirai's.

To Mr Mugabe's evident personal dismay, Zimbabwe was cast into the shade.

DECADE ago Robert Mugabe's regime seized most of Zimbabwe's white-owned commercial farms.

Most of the victims of violence say their attackers are members of Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF.

That, Mr Mugabe's backers presumably hope, should give them time to beat the opposition into submission.

Is there hope for a new Zimbabwe after Mugabe? This man is staking his life on it.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe has, by one account, been sending him arms.

Mr Mugabe has pauperised a formerly prosperous country and used thuggery to remain perpetually in power.

Mr Mugabe is certainly willing to resort to force when cornered.

That will hurt more than Britain's removal of Mr Mugabe's knighthood.

In this respect, Mr Brown is as fiercely anti-Mugabe as his predecessors.

Mr Mugabe keeps control over the armed forces.

South Africa has been accused of collusion with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabawe and Omar al Bashir of Sudan were both present during Mr Wen's speech on Sunday.

Yes, Mr Mugabe is horrible, says another, but there are "any number of rogues" in Africa.

Mr Mugabe has put out feelers to Britain's new government under David Cameron.

Moreover, many voters who detest Mr Mugabe are suspicious of Mr Makoni.

In Zimbabwe, Coke supplies "dried up" for the first time in 40 years in 2006, during the economic crisis there under Robert Mugabe.

Recently Mr. Mugabe re-appointed an ally, Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono for another five-year term.

Is Mr Mugabe behind these alleged plots or does he just quietly endorse them?

What about the treatment of Mr. Mugabe's collaborators once his regime has fallen?

But those in the SADC who have wanted to tackle Mr Mugabe more robustly are gaining ground.

However, apart from the unyielding Mr Mugabe, no one knows quite what to do.

"People here know Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, but not Simba Makoni, " he says.

Mr Mugabe continues to control the security forces.

Next time, despite all the tricks Mr Mugabe and his party are sure to play, they could well lose again.

Gadhafi last visited Zimbabwe 10 years ago at the height of Mugabe's often violent land-reform program.

The big question now is what the region's leaders will do if Mr Mugabe simply ignores them.

China too is hedging its bets between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai.

University of Johannesburg political analyst Adam Habib tells VOA that Mr. Mugabe needs to halt the collapse in Zimbabwe's economy.

So President Robert Mugabe looks sure to win another term.

Despite Mr Mugabe's record, many firms ignored the threat.

Negotiations between his party and the MDC continue, but it is unclear whether Mr Mugabe's lot will make serious concessions.

The MDC would let Mr Mugabe have a ceremonial presidency, with Mr Tsvangirai as executive prime minister.

He went higher then, and in 2007 sued Mr Mugabe before the tribunal of the Southern African Development Community.

Mugabe, apparently, laughed it off.

But UN sanctions focused tightly on Mr Mugabe and his coterie, and supported by South Africa, could have a big impact.