Mugabe tells West to 'go and hang'
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/mdc61.16118.html
By Staff Reporters
Last updated: 03/15/2007 11:30:17
ZIMBABWE'S President Robert Mugabe on Thursday told Western critics of his
government they could "go and hang" in his first comments on the recent
crackdown on the opposition.
"When they criticise the government when it tries to prevent violence and
punish perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that they can go
hang," Mugabe said after talks with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.
Mugabe blamed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change for the
violence, which has seen police shoot dead one opposition supporter and
badly beat Morgan Tsvangirai and dozens of others.
Mugabe blasted: "Here are groups of people who went out of their way to
effect acts of violence.
"We hear no criticism to this campaign from Western governments."
The United States said Thursday it is considering fresh sanctions against
Zimbabwe's government, a senior official said Wednesday.
"The US has a number of sanctions in place against those responsible for
repressing democratic activities in Zimbabwe and we do need to take a look
at what other measures might be appropriate," said State Department deputy
spokesman Tom Casey.
He would not elaborate on what sanctions could be added to current US
measures, which primarily involve travel bans and financial restrictions on
individual officials and a suspension of direct aid to the Harare
government.
"There's always other tools in the toolbox and I certainly expect we'll look
at those," he said.
A senior State Department human rights official, Barry Lowenkron, will also
raise the Zimbabwe issue with the African Union during a visit to its Addis
Ababa headquarters on Thursday, he said.
"We're also going to be consulting with a number of other like-minded
countries, including some of our European allies ... to see what other kinds
of things we might be able to do," he said.
The action came after Zimbabwe police broke up an opposition rally on
Sunday, arresting dozens of politicians and severely beating several,
including Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change.
Tsvangirai was hospitalised in intensive care on Wednesday amid an
international uproar over the incident that included condemnations from US,
British, European and African leaders.
Casey called on the UN Human Rights Council, which is currently in session
in Geneva, to join in condemning Mugabe's government for having "so
blatantly and so violently taken actions against the principle leaders of
the opposition."
"Frankly, with the council meeting right now in Geneva it would be hard to
understand how they wouldn't want to turn their attention to serious cases
of human rights abuse and violations as is occurring in Zimbabwe," he said.
Current US sanctions against Zimbabwe, imposed in 2002 and 2003, include
financial and visa restrictions against selected officials, a ban on
transfers of defense items and services and a suspension of non-humanitarian
government-to-government assistance.
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