Robert Mugabe Speech The 60th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations 18 September 2005

For many years, we have spoken in favour of an approach to international peace and security that is firmly rooted on the principle of multilateralism and the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations. We maintain that any diversion from this approach is unacceptable, undesirable and devoid of legal justification. We are pleased to note that the majority of views expressed during the last Session reinforced this principle. Our expectation is that the Security Council, in its current form, or in what ever character and composition it will eventually take, will like all other bodies of the United Nations, limit itself to what is contained in its mandate. We do not subscribe to the suggestion that all problems, social, cultural, economic, and health, among others, are necessarily threats to international peace and security and that they should therefore be referred to the Security Council. Recently, we witnessed the United Kingdom abusing its privilege and acting dishonestly as a member of the Council by seeking to score cheap political points in its bilateral dispute with us. We were dragged on to the Council's agenda over an issue that has no relevance to the maintenance of international peace and security. Let me pay tribute, to those members of the Security Council who saw through this cheap politicking and manipulation of procedures, which the same country, by the way, has vowed to resume as soon as the Council is appropriately chaired. It is my hope that Member countries will join us in rejecting this neo-colonialist attempt and blatant interference in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe. But, then, is it not obvious that Britain, under the regime of Tony Blair, has ceased to respect the Charter of the United Nations? Witness it's being a principal member of the anti-Iraq illegal Coalition that went on a devastating campaign of the country in complete defiance of the United Nations Charter! Any state or group of States that commits such an act of aggression on another, justifying it on blatant falsehoods, surely becomes guilty of state terrorism. Zimbabwe is a country at peace with itself and with its neighbours and offers absolutely no threat to international peace and security. It is not, therefore, surprising that Britain and its Anglo-Saxon allies have embarked on a vicious campaign of first peddling blatant lies intended to tarnish it and secondly appealing to Europe and America for sanctions against it? These imperialist countries have unashamedly abused the power of the media by hypocritically portraying themselves as philanthropists and international saviors of victims of various calamities. And yet they have remained silent about the shocking circumstances of obvious State neglect surrounding the tragic Gulf Coast disaster, where a whole community of mainly non-whites was deliberately abandoned to ravages of Hurricane Katrina as sacrificial lambs; and sacrificed to which god, one can not tell. Most of the victims were blacks, and we are bound to ask what transgressions we, the blacks of this world, have committed? Was it not enough punishment and suffering in history that we were uprooted and made helpless slaves not only in new colonial outposts but also domestically, that is also at home through a vicious system of colonialism? Must we again, in this day of humanitarian ethics, this day of the sacred principles of equality of mankind and the rights of man and woman, this day that has seen us assemble here to save, enhance and prolong life, become victims of callous racial neglect? We of Africa protest that, in this day and age, we should continue to be treated as lesser human beings than other races. We reiterate our deep sympathies and condolences over the massive loss of lives that occurred in the Katrina Hurricane disaster! If, as we are told, many who survived the wrath of Hurricane Katrina are still on dispersal, the question we ask in our minds is for how long will they remain dispersed? We ask further whether they will ever get back, truly rehabilitated, to their original homes, at present mere wreckages? Where is the Zimbabwe-famous Habitat, I ask? Why should it maintain ominous silence? For here is real work of the homeless for it! This, indeed, is where it rightly belongs and not anywhere in Zimbabwe! With reference to the vexatious issue of the reform of the Security Council, we have made our views known through the African Union. We seek fair and equal treatment as partners in this community of nations, and pledge our commitment to working with others in pursuit of that objective. The promotion of human rights is one of the major aims of the United Nations as enshrined in its Charter. As such, the subject rightly occupies space on the agenda of each Session of the General Assembly, including this one. We believe that the United Nations should make every effort to promote and protect the full enjoyment of human rights, including the right to development. Regrettably, we have seen over the years, a deliberate tendency to create a distorted hierarchy of rights with the sole mischievous purpose of overplaying civil and political rights, while down-playing economic, social and cultural rights. This explains why the whole human rights agenda, instead of being a cooperative exercise, has degenerated into a Western-managed kangaroo court, always looking out for 'criminals' among developing countries. Hence we continue to argue that the human rights discourse needs to be rid of selectivity and double standards and to be approached without hidden political agendas. The African Union has indicated its support for the establishment of a Human Rights Council that will be subordinated to the General Assembly. Zimbabwe subscribes fully to that position. We believe, however, that a correctly sized and properly structured Council, with equitable geographical representation, will be a major step in addressing the deficiencies of the current Commission on Human Rights. At the beginning of the last Session, I informed this august Assembly that, despite the recurrent droughts that we had experienced, Zimbabwe had a capacity to cope with its situation of hunger and was thus not appealing for humanitarian intervention. In spite of that message, our detractors and ill wishers have been projecting a false picture of mass starvation. There has been none of that. Recently, particularly in the aftermath of our urban clean-up operation, popularly known as operation Murambatsvina or Restore Order, the familiar noises re-echoed from the same malicious prophets of doom, claiming that there was humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Those unfounded alarms are aimed at deliberately tarnishing the image of Zimbabwe and projecting it as a failed state. We find it strange and obviously anomalous that the Government of Zimbabwe should be maligned and condemned for restoring order and rule of law in its municipal areas. Our detractors fail to acknowledge that Operation Restore Order soon gave way to a well-planned vast reconstruction programme through which properly planned accommodation, factory shells and vending stalls are being constructed in many areas of the country for our people. We have rejected the scandalous demand, as expressed in the Special Envoy's Anna Tibaijuka's report, that we lower our urban housing standards to allow for mud huts, bush latrines and pit toilets as suitable for the urban people of Zimbabwe and for Africans generally. Nothing can be more insulting and degrading of a people than that! Surely, we do not need development in reverse. Let me conclude by making my message to our detractors very simple and clear. The people of Zimbabwe came through a protracted guerilla struggle to establish themselves as a free and sovereign Nation. We indeed went through long and bitter times to get our freedom and Independence and to be where we are today. We cherish that hard-won freedom and Independence, and no amount of coercion, political, economic or otherwise, will make us a colony again. But we also cherish peace and development, and good regional and international relations. Together will all nations of goodwill, we will continue to work tirelessly for a just, peaceful and prosperous world.

Robert Mugabe Speech National Heroes Day, 8th August 2005

Today we gather here yet again to commemorate an important national occasion, the Heroes Day. This is a day we dedicate to those gallant men and women who gave up their lives so we could all be free. This day was hallowed yesterday; is being hallowed today; will be hallowed tomorrow, and always in the future, as an abiding signpost of how Zimbabwe came to be. As we congregate here, we remain aware that many more of our heroes lie away from this central National Shrine; at numerous shrines in all our provinces and districts; in mass graves outside our borders, in Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Angola, Tanzania and other countries. They lie undetected, unmarked, unburied on the very ground they fell in battle. Through an occasion like this, we reassure them that they remain dear and solid in our memories. Yes, we use this day and occasion to remember thousands of victims of settler atrocities throughout the ninety long years of occupation, starting of course with the heroes and heroines of our First Chimurenga who, by their heroic acts of illustrative resistance, sowed the seed that inspired and fortified the Second Chimurenga. In the same spirit, we remember heroic victims of later forms of resistance after the First Chimurenga, right up to the sixties when many perished on the streets, in jails and detentions, and in some cases, in circumstances we still cannot comprehend or fathom to this day. The best way of honouring all these heroes is that of renewing our collective oath to this Nation, binding ourselves anew to its total defence and to upholding the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of our liberated country, the Republic of Zimbabwe, for all time. Each and every one of our heroes knew that he or she was part of a national collectivity, which required a marriage of efforts in the struggle, the people's struggle if we were to succeed. Each and every one of our heroes thus knew that the principal and most formidable weapon of our struggle was unity: purposeful unity of the oppressed masses bound in their struggle and bounded by the spirit of sacrifice and by their sacred blood already spilt. Unity was the formula for survival; unity was the formula for power, yes, unity was the principal strategy for winning the brutal war against the settler occupier. It was ands remains the cornerstone for the preservation of our Nation for all time. So as we fought and won in unity, we gather and celebrate our victory in unity. Our heroes knew that the struggle for Independence was a political expression of a continuing struggle which one day would translate into other forms our struggle, always driven by people-oriented goals. Freedom and Independence having been won, the ultimate goal was now the creation of a socio-economic environment in which the people would in common reap maximum benefits. These would, in the main derive from the land, and land as their principal natural resource. That is why the Third Chimurenga became necessary. Without doubt, our heroes are happy that a crucial part of this new phase of our struggle has been completed. The land has been freed and today all our heroes lie on the soil that is emancipated. Their spirits are unbound, free to roam the land they left shackled, thanks again to the Third Chimurenga. But they want you and me to protect and use that unshackled land in feeding and prospering our Nation. They want the same land that was shackled yesterday to flower and feed our children. They want it worked productively so it can do much more than just to feed the Nation. There is indeed the urgent need to move away from the current economic structure, which still sees us relying on substantial imports for our basic requirements, because we fail to produce what we need. Today, I repeat the wartime slogan, which motivated us to share burdens of the struggle: Iwe neni tine basa! The land we acquired from the white settlers and committed to your care brought with it enormous responsibilities. Government continues to extend generous support to agriculture, to the new farmers; and our expectation is that such assistance should translate into better and expanded agriculture that secures the Nation's food needs and drives its economy. We have temporarily stopped all land allocations to allow ourselves time to review the situation as it has evolved until now. We want to be satisfied that all beneficiaries thus far are working the land meaningfully. We want to be satisfied that allocations match capacities of beneficiaries, by both size and means. Ownership imposes responsibilities, more so for a finite resource such as land. Let it be appreciated that until and unless we are able to feed ourselves as a Nation, we remain vulnerable to outside influence and subversion. In asking all those on the land to produce, we are asking them to secure our sovereignty, which continues to be challenged by the same forces we fought against yesterday. In May, we embarked on a broad clean-up campaign meant to put an end to unplanned settlements and activities. Dubbed "Operation Murambatsvina", the exercise created some difficulties for some individuals and families accommodated in informal settlements that lay outside official plans and arrangements. We could not have allowed such settlements to go on any longer, together with the illegal activities, which thrived on such environments. We acted decisively, but always mindful that the chief end was to accommodate displaced persons by providing them with better shelter. This is why "Operation Murambatsvina" soon gave way to "Operation Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle" through which an expanded national housing delivery programme is crystallizing around the preceding clean-up operation. Let it not be forgetting that "Operation Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle" is now possible because the land has been freed. We can now cut available land into residential stands that meet the accommodation needs of our urban people, the same way our rural landless have had their land needs met. It is the same land reform programmes only expressing itself variously to meet define needs and circumstances. We committed to improving the lot of our citizens in urban areas. Indeed, we have been since 1980, when we got our Independence and when Government embarked on a massive housing programme which unfortunately lost impetus somewhere along the way. The time to refocus is now, and providing homes is a prime responsibility of Government. Let those loud hypocrites who speak in defence of slums that brutalise our people tell us why they have done for our people in the area of housing ever since. Let those long-distance philanthropists who want to romanticize shacks as settings and habitants for human rights tell us why they do not allow them in their own lands. Surely their own people need and deserve human rights, which we are told are the same everywhere. Above all, let them tell us why they have slapped the same people they say they love and cherish so deeply with illegal sanctions. We shall not be detracted from building shelter for our people and the ongoing programmes on housing should be accelerated. We thank countries of goodwill, most notably, the People's Republic of China, Russia, Algeria, Tanzania and Benin, for standing by us in the Security Council and fending off the threats from the West. Blair and his European and American supporters had hoped to use the exaggerated effects of a well-meant exercise to drag us into the United Nations Security Council so as to legitimize his imperial designs against our Nation. The plan failed dismally and today the whole world, including the United Nations, knows the insincerity of the Blair government when it comes to Zimbabwe. I have invited the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to visit our country so he can have an appreciation of what we are trying to do for our people in the sphere of Housing and Informal Business. It is important that the United Nations remains a genuine instrument of world peace and interaction, not a platform from which powerful nations assault the sovereignty of smaller nations. That visit, if taken up, will enable the Security General to understand our situation better, including what we are trying to do develop our people and country against artificial odds and formidable impediments spitefully placed in our way by nations, which are supposed to be civilized. A few years back, we changed course and declared a "Look East" policy. It is a policy rooted in our struggle. Let it not be forgotten that with the exception of the former Soviet Union, the material assistance that helped liberate this country largely came from China. It was the so-called "red" world and not the pretentious "free world" that helped us win our freedom and regain our liberties. I am happy to announce that our "look East" policy is beginning to assume concrete form and to yield quantifiable economic results for our Nation. My recent State Visit to China was most beneficial, and is set to transform our economy in a fundamental way. I am aware that there are shrill calls from many quarters, including those, which we expect to know better, for the so-called talks with the MDC. Some of these calls have been motivated by the MDC leadership which thinks it can use international pressure to compel us to talk to talk to it. Today, we tell all those calling for such ill-conceived talks to please stop misdirecting their efforts. They know who must be spoken to. In case they do not, we tell here at Heroes' Acre that the man who needs to be spoken to in order to see reason resides at No. 10 Downing Street. Those in Harvest House, Harare, are no more than his stooges and puppets. He needs to be told Zimbabwe became a free and sovereign country in 1980, which put an end to British settler colonial rule. If the MDC are genuine and sincere, let them call for an end to these odious sanctions they have invited to afflict this country. They mistakenly and quite stupidly hoped the resultant difficulties brought upon our people would create a situation in which they could install themselves in power over people who have demonstrably rejected them in general elections. When will they learn that power to rule Zimbabwe comes from the people of Zimbabwe? The people of this country will sternly resist the promise by their masters of "regime change". These Heroes and others who lie elsewhere sacrificed their lives to free our country and its people from British imperialism. He who courts that imperialism and goes to bed with it is worse than a traitor. Finally, may I appeal to all our people for true loyalty to our country Zimbabwe and to the vision and calling of these men and women of honour who lie here. They challenge all of us to continue to serve this country in the true spirit of patriotism.

Robert Mugabe Speech: 25th Independence Silver Jubilee Celebrations, 18th April 2005

Twenty-five years have gone by since that eventful midnight of 18th April, 1980 when our country was born, proudly taking up her place among members of the community of nations as a full, independent and sovereign State. This birth followed bitter struggles and wars of resistance waged by our people for nearly a century, struggles meant to dislodge British settler colonialism, which in 1890, had planted itself on our soil through force of arms. When this day finally arrived, we had paid the price of British bondage for ninety long and arduous years of systematic assault and injury to our body and soul as a Nation under occupation. To this day, we bear the lasting scars of that dark encounter with colonialism, often described as civilising. Important as it is, this magic day of 18th April did not mark our destination or herald the end of our struggles. April 18 announced the beginning of new and even more demanding struggles ahead. We had to secure peace; we had to integrate three previously warring armies; we had to resettle thousands of displaced persons and refuges from the war; and we had to rehabilitate a war-ravaged countryside. The challenge was daunting, a real matter of faith. Twenty-five years later, we have an opportunity to look at how we have lived as a Nation since then. But we do so having achieved the landmark of 25 years, which this day, the 18th of April represents, for it was the day on which, in 1980, we proclaimed our birth and presence to the world with a collective voice. The emotion-laden visual of that proclamation was the lowering of the Union Jack - the British flag - and its subsequent replacement by our own. Comrades when we ascended to full sovereignty and freedom, we clearly communicated our resolve never again to be in bondage. The new flag represented the wealth we carry as a Nation, although, sadly, it was wealth we were not able to control or take over quickly. That, of course, included our land, all that grows on it, and all that which is embedded deep within its bowels. The new flag also expressed our deep compassion, our wish and offer of peace to the world. As a war-weary people, we badly needed it, both at home and abroad. And the circumstances were most delicate, for the embittered Rhodesians were plotting the reversal of the people's revolution. The same flag, yes, carried our dreams, our hopes, and our lofty and boundless ambitions. It represented our colour and our past, both combining to give identity to a young and achieving African Nation steeped in proud history. We hoisted all these things on the 18th April, the day we joyously mark today. We thus struck a covenant with our selves and those to come after us. We are the living, the independent, and an African people firmly rooted. In celebrating our coming into being, we acknowledge the founding struggles waged by our forbears. Their brave resistance started from the last decade of the 19th Century and went into the first decade of the 20th Century. From that historical experience, we have gleaned life-long lessons for building this Nation, which has turned twenty-five today. Our Chimurenga or liberation struggle was "a people's war" and thus demonstration the imperative need for national unity not in winning and defending our sovereignty but also in pursuing the post-war struggles against poverty, hunger, disease and ignorance. A united people can never be really defeated. This reckoning thus impels us to be on a tireless search for unity even as we uphold the Unity Accord of 1987. Our people are, indeed, united and we therefore dare not undermine the Accord. Above all, our struggles have taught us that sacrifices are an integral part and signify the element of bravery and courage. For Africa, freedom has never come cheap and easy. Colonisers do not freely let go of nations they occupy. Their hold has to be broken through bitter and bloody struggles by the oppressed. Such struggles have always demanded sacrifices. Today, we tell our children that the joys of 18th April emanate from the hapless villager slaughtered in cold blood only yesterday, for supporting the struggle. We tell them and sacrifices, which have provided a firm foundation for our pan-African spirit and character. But we also recall and take pride in the fact that we opened our Independence with a demonstration of compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation, unexampled in European history. Confounding all expectations and fears of retributive justice against Rhodesian war criminals, we, in March 1980 proclaimed a Policy of National Reconciliation by which we forgave their heinous sins and atrocities against our people. By this policy, their war crimes stood forgiven, expiated not by restitution or even a show of contrition on their part, but simply by our own forgiving consciences. Against that biter history, we still gave our hand, gave ours hearts and our love to the erstwhile oppressor, in clear demonstration of African humanity. Today, Ian Smith, himself racist Rhodesia incarnate, still lives a free man. Out of this policy, we built peace, healed weeping wounds, pacified restless souls of all those disconsolately bitter and deeply injured. Yes, we freed the oppressor. Who, in the Anglo-Saxon West would have done what we did? Democracy has come during the same twenty-five years, not as a hand-down from Europe, but as a natural offshoot of our struggle. We made our democracy and owe it to no one, least of all Europeans. Until we beat them on the battlefield, Britain and her kith and kin here would not concede voting rights to Africans. The one-person-one-vote we have enjoyed since 1980 is a gain from our liberation struggle. Let it be forever remembered it was the bullet that brought the ballot. The twenty-five years we celebrate today have been years of regular elections in 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2002, and, just slightly over two weeks ago, in March 2005. Our polls have not needed Anglo-American validation. Fellow Africans and friendly countries from the Third World validated them. That is our humane universe, not Europe, not America. We never agitate to observe their elections, and, therefore, let them keep away from our affairs. We thank Africa for her support as we prepared for our polls. We thank all the political players and their supporters for heeding the call for peace. We thank our people for ensuring peace throughout the entire election period. Indeed, this is as it should always be. The twenty-five years that have gone by the taught us democracy cannot grow well on the soil of racial poverty and inequality. Genuine democracy cannot co-exist with structural deprivation and racial inequality. It cannot be an escape from addressing the national question. Such a model of democracy we reject for it is meant to give the oppressed an illusion of power and control. The historical fact of land, at the heart of our liberation struggle, necessarily forges this vital connection in our political circumstances. In Zimbabwe, land governs the ballot. It is a symbol of sovereignty, it is the economy, indeed, the source of our welfare as Africans. It remains the core social question of our time, as, indeed, it was the main grievance on which our liberation struggle was based. Today, twenty-five years later, we rejoice that this fundamental goal our struggle has been achieved. We have resolved the long outstanding national land question, and the land has now come to its rightful owners, and with it, our sovereignty. Our people are happy and fulfilled, and this is all that maters to us. Let the grief and bitterness that has visited Europe following the repossession of our land heals on its own, in its time. Zimbabwe is in Africa, not Europe! We have done much more in the 25 years, which have gone by. We have built schools, colleges, polytechnics and universities. We have trained teachers and expanded education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. We have educated our children and with a literacy rate of well over 86 percent, Zimbabwe far surpasses most nations of the world in education, which is why our skilled people are much sought after in most parts of the world. The coming years will see resolute steps taken to review and overhaul certain aspects of the current education system, placing emphasis on development-related education, Information Technology, vocationalisation and entrepreneurship for self-job creation. We have also built health institutions throughout the country and have stepped up the training of health personnel, albeit against the challenges of induced skills flight. Today, every community has a clinic or health center on the basis of which our national primary health care programme has been an example to, and the envy of the developing world. However, the biggest challenge we face as a Nation is HIV/ AIDS pandemic which has really strained our health delivery system. Definitive steps are being undertaken to address the challenge, including greater local manufacturing of anti-retroviral, as well as significant subsidies for HIV- related drugs and treatments. But the achievements in the health sector have been enormous and we can only improve in the years ahead. Dramatic gains have been registered in opening up rural areas through greater infrastructural development. From a road and rail network designed to serve white interests, we have expanded the road network to bring hitherto to neglected rural areas within the national developmental grid. We have built an effective system of feeder roads, overcoming natural barriers through a network of bridges. However, a lot more still needs to be done. We have expanded rural electrification, covering the far reaches of our country. We have lit up rural service centers, rural schools, offices and homestead s of traditional and community leaders. With electric power in place, it is now possible to attract meaningful small to medium scale investments into rural areas, in the process, tackling rural unemployment. Complementary to rural electrification programme has been the provision of rural telecommunication services. Our water sector has also enjoyed huge investments during the same period. We have built many dams of all sizes in all provinces, especially the drought prone provinces of Matebeleland, Midlands and Masvingo. But not all has been rosy in these twenty-five years that we are taking stock of today. The spectre of drought has repeatedly visited us, seemingly increasing in frequency in the new millennium. And although we have invested heavily in harvesting water, not much has been done to harness that water for irrigation purposes. We thus suffer repeated "wet" droughts. Increasing irrigable land is the surest insurance and no effort will be spread from this very year. While out detractors claim that our economy has not done that well, we are happy that it has delivered spectacularly on our social goals, thereby laying a firm foundation for our future growth policies. It has delivered on education, health, infrastructure, water, energy and communication. These happen to be prerequisites for an economic take-off. And we now have them in place. True, business has not expanded as fast as we would have wished, and much remains to be for that to happen. Until recently, the economy had suffered a general rise in inflation and price instability. Businesses either closed or contracted. Wages were eroded, while unemployment rose quite markedly. Pushing interest rates have also dissuaded investments or business expansions. Our experiments with the ruinous economic structural adjustment programme appear to have unleashed mayhem in the economy. We are a lot wiser now. We are clear and definite on the way forward in the years ahead. We need to protect our people from the ravages of drought that have afflicted us for years. We shall continue to organize ourselves in order to resist droughts and when they occur to be in a position to prevent hunger. The responsibility of sustaining our people during challenging periods is primarily that of Government. We shall always live up to this responsibility. All these efforts naturally must unfold within the framework of our Economic Turnaround Programme, which has already, register dramatic gains restoring macroeconomic balance. While these gains have been generated by reforms championed by our Reserve Bank, they need an emphatic supply response to remain sustainable. Agriculture must grow and expand. Industry and mining must respond positively to the turnaround, as indeed should commerce and the service sector. The hostility we have faced from western countries in response to our Land Reform has taught us to diversify our sources and export markets. We have turned East; we have turned to region and other sub-regions on our continent. With this support, we have started building mutually beneficial partnerships that will help us build a strong national economy, our ultimate goal. Let me conclude by thanking leaders from our neighbouring countries who have agreed to grace our Silver Jubilee Celebrations. Some of them lead countries that produced heroes we honoured just yesterday. We hold them in great affection and cherish this deep relationship forged through shared struggles and sacrifices. I also thank friends and supporters of Zimbabwe, friends and supporters who have stood by us through thick and thin. They are friends indeed and we shall not fail them. Gone are the days when Africa produced tragic revolutions. We have to defend our own space by any means necessary. We have to defend our policies and pursue the unhindered. Africa for Africans! Long live the African Union! Long Live Zimbabwe! Long Live the People of Zimbabwe! Long Live our Independence! Long Live Africa!