Robert Mugabe’s government has blamed “biological warfare” waged by Britain for the cholera outbreak that has killed at least 800 people in Zimbabwe.
His ministers said the disease had been introduced to the country by the UK as part of a campaign of ‘genocidal onslaught’.
Mr Mugabe has long sought to portray the suffering of his country’s people as the result of a dispute between London and his own government, blaming the former colonial power for a range of ills. But the cholera claim is further and more bizarre than his Zanu-PF party has ever gone before.
Information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said: “The cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe is a serious biological, chemical war force, a genocidal onslaught, on the people of Zimbabwe by the British,” said the. “It’s a genocide of our people.
“This was a calculated warfare. There are forces who are continuing to plant anthrax and cholera disease.
“Cholera is a calculated, racist attack on Zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, which has enlisted support from its American and Western allies so that they can invade the country.”
With demands rising for Mr Mugabe to face prosecution in The Hague for human rights abuses, Mr Ndlovu instead called for the British prime minister to be brought to justice.
“Gordon Brown must be taken to the United Nations Security Council for being a threat to world peace and planting cholera and anthrax to invade Zimbabwe – our peaceful Zimbabwe,” he said.
His comments came after Harare tried to claim that Mr Mugabe had been joking when he said there was ‘no cholera’ in Zimbabwe, despite the continuing epidemic.
The 84-year-old leader had told mourners at the funeral of his close ally Elliot Manyika that the disease had been “arrested”. Amid growing calls for his departure, some saying the use of force would be legitimate, he said: “Now that there is no cholera, there is no need for war.” The comments triggered widespread condemnation, with the US ambassador in Harare saying they showed “how out of touch he is with the reality” in Zimbabwe.
But soon after, Mr Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba tried to backtrack, saying that he had been making “his argument through sarcasm, noting that now that efforts deployed so far towards containing the outbreak were beginning to yield positive results”.
He denounced the Western media, saying they “have chosen a path of wilful distortion of a clear statement and argument by the Zimbabwean president, in order to advance the war and regime change agenda of their expansionist governments”.
The double-pronged attempt by Harare to try to divert attention from its own failings is an indication that the authorities are increasingly worried about the repercussions of the cholera epidemic.
According to the World Health Organisation it 792 people have died, and it has also coincided with soldiers rioting over their financial problems.
But Mr Mugabe’s propagandists are adept at their work, and to those in Africa who want to believe them their pronouncements, however lurid, will seem plausible.
Despite the calls for action, there is little in practice that neighbouring countries can do about his misrule, even though the disease is beginning to affect them too.
Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, gave warning that Britain it could also have implications for Britain, with an influx of Zimbabwean immigrants could trying flee the epidemic, although Foreign Office sources played down the idea.
South Africa is still pressing the importance of a unity government being formed with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, even though critics say that it is a route for Zanu-PF to retain power.
Nonetheless the Anglican bishop of Pretoria today added his voice to the demands for Mr Mugabe to go, comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
“He must be removed by all means necessary, to stop the further suffering of God’s children and save lives in that country,” Joe Seoka told South Africa’s Times newspaper.
“Mugabe must be viewed as the 21st century Hitler because of the deaths and suffering of Zimbabweans under his rule.”
N/B:This article is taken from the UK Telegraph.We republish in the interest of our readers.
