Zimbabwe says Blair is hunting Mugabe's head
By Cris Chinaka
MAPUTO, July 10 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's foreign minister said on Thursday Prime Minister Tony Blair asked U.S. President George W. Bush for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's "head" in exchange for British support in the Iraq war.
"Salome Blair danced in Iraq and the king (Bush) asked him what he wanted...and Salome Blair asked for Robert Gabriel Mugabes head," Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told journalists at the African Union summit, referring to the biblical story of Salome and John the Baptist.
"The African Union understands that Zimbabwe is the victim of a racist campaign, and that the problems we are facing are driven by outsiders."
Zimbabwe suffers chronic food shortages and 70 percent unemployment. Critics blame the crisis on Mugabe.
Over the past three years, Zimbabwe has accused former colonial master Britain of being on a "racist" mission to destroy Mugabe over his controversial seizures of white-owned farms.
Zimbabwe's deepening political and economic crisis is not on the agenda of the annual African summit which opened on Thursday with Mugabe in attendance.
"That is in some senses a fatal mistake...for the African Union," analyst Ross Herbert said in Maputo.
"(Zimbabwe) is something that Africa is going to have to deal with," Herbert, of the South African Institute for International Affairs, told Reuters.
The country was on the agenda, however, when Bush visited South African President Thabo Mbeki and Botswana's President Festus Mogae on Thursday.
In South Africa, Bush disappointed Zimbabwe's opposition by failing to take a tough anti-Mugabe stance. Instead, Bush warmly endorsed the mediation of Mbeki who has adopted "quiet diplomacy" on Zimbabwe, at least in public.
In Botswana, Bush had stronger words when asked about Zimbabwe.
"We expect there to be democracy in Zimbabwe in order for the people of that country to advance...The weakness in the economy is directly attributable to bad governance and therefore we will continue to speak out for democracy in Zimbabwe," he said.
The European Union imposed travel and investment sanctions on Zimbabwe last year after Mugabe won an election condemned by the opposition and many Western powers as fraudulent.
Mudenge said the AU had maintained its stance after Tuesday's closed-door session that the continental body would hold no meetings with the EU on development issues if it insisted on excluding Zimbabwe.
Mugabe, 79, has been in power since independence in 1980. He maintains he was re-elected fairly and has refused calls for a poll re-rerun.
07/10/03 13:44 ET
