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A pig flies over Zimbabwe.
Robert Mugabe appeared to have mellowed momentarily during a speech delivered earlier today. True, the 83-year-old dictator has been under a lot of pressure lately. He has been told he's not welcome at the upcoming Commonwealth meeting in Kampala; his own intelligence chief has warned him that, if he insists on running for re-election as president next year, he will lose; reports continue to circulate that a coup attempt was put down last week.
For whatever reason, something unexpected popped out of his mouth.
President Robert Mugabe on Monday made a rare gesture of acknowledgement to the opposition, saying despite political differences with his government they remained Zimbabweans.
Mugabe frequently uses public occasions to lambaste the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which he calls a puppet of former colonial power Britain, and has vowed its leader Morgan Tsvangirai will never rule the country.
. . .
"We are happy they are here … and they are part of us in the entity we call the nation and no politics can ever make them alien," Mugabe said to applause from the gathering during a speech broadcast on state television.
But it was only a brief lapse. Minutes later, he was back in his usual form, calling British Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State David Triesman a “madman” for suggesting that he could be tried for human rights abuses.
As well, the sincerity of Mugabe’s expression of happiness for political opposition appears doubtful in view of this:
Zimbabwean police arrested more than 150 people on Monday in rural Matabeleland South during a protest march against the ongoing economic hardships.
About 500 demonstrators carrying placards and chanting anti-government slogans at Filabusi, about 100km southeast of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, were confronted by heavily armed police officers. Kossam Ncube, the lawyer acting on behalf of those detained, told IRIN the marchers had been arrested and assaulted.
It’s hard for an old pig tyrant to learn new tricks.
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