Sunday, March 01, 2009

Mugabe vows farm seizures, holds party

From the BBC.

Although the headlines is about the legal wrangle over farm seizures, the article has a lot of other information on Zim ...
...

...Mugabe supporters raised $250,000 (£176,000) for a lavish birthday party in Chinhoyi, north-west of Harare.

Zimbabwe asked African states for $2bn (£1.4bn) in economic aid just days ago....

Morgan Tsvangirai, the new prime minister and former opposition leader, did not attend the celebrations despite earlier indications that he might.

Mr Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, told Reuters news agency Mr Tsvangirai had opted out of the event after realising it had been organised by the president's Zanu-PF party.

"People should not read this as a snub - he excused himself," Mr Charamba said....

Good for him.

...The birthday celebrations come as Zimbabwe struggles with the world's highest inflation, food shortages and a cholera epidemic which the World Health Organisation says has killed 3,894 people since August last year....

Following a two-day meeting of regional ministers in Cape Town, South Africa, members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union pledged to "pursue measures in support of Zimbabwe's economic recovery programme".

But Western donors have said they are waiting for proof that the unity government is really working before sending in funds.



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