Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe celebrated his 91st birthday on Saturday with an $1.2 million extravagant party at a Victoria Falls gold resort — and an anti-white speech.
Mr. Mugabe pledged to extend the land grabs which saw thousands of white farmers driven off their farms since 2000 to the country’s game reserves, the Telegraph reported Saturday.
“Zimbabwe has lots of safaris but very few are African,” Mr. Mugabe said. “Most are white-owned. In our region, we have the most safaris and animals. But we are now going to invade those forests. Our people cannot keep suffering.”
Mr. Mugabe told his guests that he would only allow white game reserve owners to stay in the country if the U.S. lifted economic sanctions that have been imposed since 2002.
“We can do things for ourselves. We don’t need the white man to continue to guide us,” he said, the Telegraph reported.
Both the U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions on Mr. Mugabe, his wife and members of his inner circle after reports of his human rights abuses spread, detailing forced evictions being carried about by the despot. He has declared himself a champion of post-colonial Africa.
Zimbabwe has refused to let the U.N. and other organizations help the estimated 700,000 people that have been made homeless or jobless by Mr. Mugabe’s evictions.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.