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Zimbabwe: Museveni raps Brown Posted: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Herald Reporter Novembber 27, 2007 The Herald UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni last week outrightly rejected British Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown's attempt to have the East African country meddle in Zimbabwe's internal affairs. According to Press reports, during a session between the two leaders at the recent Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting, Mr Brown asked President Museveni to "intervene in the Zimbabwe crisis". He got more than he had bargained for when the Ugandan leader told him that he had misunderstood the country. Mr Museveni is said to have told the British premier that "(President) Mugabe is a revolutionary who fought to emancipate his people. When you are talking to a revolutionary, you listen to his points rather than give him orders". The Ugandan leader is understood to have told Mr Brown that what Zimbabwe required was an economic solution. This came in the wake of attempts by MDC faction leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, with the backing of the British Royal Africa Society, to steer the public forum on the sidelines of the meeting to discuss Zimbabwe when the country left the club of former British colonies in 2003. In an interview with Uganda's Daily Monitor, Mr Tsvangirai – who is facing a serious internal revolt over alleged dictatorial tendencies back home – tried to insinuate that President Museveni had a challenge to "control" President Mugabe. The manner in which Mr Tsvangirai and the Royal Africa Society put their co-ordinated campaign across in Uganda hints at a plot to discredit Zimbabwe, masterminded by the British culminating in Mr Brown's ill-fated attempts to manipulate President Museveni. Earlier in the year, Archbishop of York John Sentamu and his South African counterpart embarrassed themselves when they too embarked on a seemingly British co-ordinated attempt to paint Zimbabwe in a negative light. Reacting to the latest shenanigans by Mr Brown, Mr Tsvangirai and the British Royal Africa Society, Secretary for Information and Publicity Cde George Charamba said President Museveni's reaction was "just a foretaste of Lisbon", in reference to the December European Union-Africa Summit in Portugal. "Brown, who does not appear to have a sense of history, also does not appear to have realised that he was talking to a liberation war veteran in President Museveni. His political temperament would make him closer to President Mugabe than to Britain and its imperial ambitions, which Mr Brown represents. "The British prime minister is trying to use Africa and its leaders as instruments of British foreign policy goals. The British Royal Africa Society was originally meant to make an impression on Commonwealth leaders by dominating the public forum, which Tsvangirai addressed, but that didn't quite work out, forcing Brown to deploy himself to do exactly that. "Was Africa supposed to humiliate herself and betray her own interests in her own home? "This is a foretaste of Lisbon. Europe had better take note of Africa's changing temperament. Africa will not be told what to do by erstwhile colonial masters and Europe must adapt to the second winds of change sweeping across Africa," said Cde Charamba. |
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