Zimbabwe is not a basket case, says Mugabe

We arrived at them deliberately.

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All right.  So if you say you arrived at them deliberately, why then are their MPs and officials still being harassed?

Because the issue of those who have been arrested is a different matter altogether.  Some of them had committed crimes before the global agreement, crimes such as rape and kidnapping.  You couldn’t let people who have committed such crimes get away with it merely because there is a global agreement.

 
Has Roy Bennett committed a crime?  Why is he not being sworn in?

Roy Bennett has been charged, and on the face of it the charges are very serious.  But I’m told this by the leader of the MDC — that the prosecution is addressing no evidence.  There are no witnesses.  And I’ve said, if there are no witnesses, the prosecution will arrive at a time when they will say so.

 
So charged with what?

But let’s not read that for them.  Let them read that conclusion on their own.

 
Do you think that he will be appointed?

Yes, yes, yes, if he’s acquitted, he will be appointed.

But charged with what?

Charged with ... with having, you know, tried to put ... I think he was found responsible for ... that’s the allegation.  The allegation is that he’s responsible for organizing arms of war against Zimbabwe...

 
Well, we’ll obviously have to ask him about that, but...

  ... and ... and ... and that this ... these are the charges that are being made on the face of them.
 
Well...

But if the prosecution cannot prove that, in fact, he did so, that, in fact, he’s guilty of, you know, trying to organize, you know...

 
Mr Mugabe, that’s certainly the first I’m hearing of it, and we will, obviously, put that to them.  But can I say this?  There are a lot of people — and you heard in that report — who considered you an African hero back in 1980, that you came and — some of my own friends, Rhodesians, some of the people I’ve worked with who were in the Rhodesian army, then became journalists in Rhodesia were stunned by the conciliatory nature and the addresses that you gave back in 1980...