West plotting to ‘kill’ me: Mugabe

By Gift Phiri

President Robert Mugabe has accused Western countries of plotting to assassinate him to gain access to Zimbabwe’s wealth. Mugabe told a meeting of Zimbabwean students in Beijing during his annual vacation that Western countries planned to kill him.

Zimbabwean leaders usually use the term “West” to refer to Britain and the United States in particular.

In an already tense election campaign, where his opposition senses it has its best chance to end the socialist leader’s 32-year grip on the South African nation, Mugabe implied that the plot had come from within the West’s own ranks.

The report on State TV did not specify the exact source of the plot. But it is the second time the 88-year-old leader has made the shocking claim after making similar claims at his Zanu PF party’s annual conference last month.

Mugabe said the plot involved hostile non-governmental organisations bankrolled by the West and was aimed at driving him out of power and imposing a “puppet government”, a phrase he regularly uses to refer to his foe and coalition partner Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who hopes to block his bid for re-election this year.

Mugabe gave few details of the alleged plot. “They send NGOs into our system, they always want puppet regimes and if there is a strong government, they talk of regime change,” Mugabe told the students.

“They want to change us, change me for a long time if not get rid of me if not to kill me altogether. And that is the appetite of the West for wealth. We also have appetite for wealth, but not for other people’s wealth.”

Earlier last month, Mugabe told his 13th national people’s conference: “You can’t be afraid that you will be killed. How many have died? This is my country. I will die for it. A lot of others have died for it.”

US ambassador to Zimbabwe Bruce Wharton told reporters in Bulawayo last month that there was no plot whatsoever to bump off the veteran ruler. “That is not our policy and we would not do that. It is not our policy in Zimbabwe,” Wharton said.

“Let me be very clear: the United States wants a strong, stable, prosperous, just Zimbabwe. We are looking for ways to support that through healthy positive productive means, no other means,” he said. If anything, the US was ready to work with Zanu PF if it won a free and fair vote.

“If the elections are open and neutral and the people of Zimbabwe and Sadc, supposedly the monitoring teams, say these are good elections, yes, I think the United States would support a Mugabe government if it is elected,” he said. – Daily News