Kaunda, Chiluba and Sata defend Mugabe

Two past Zambian Presidents Kenneth Kaunda and Fredrick Chiluba have accused President Robert Mugabe’s Western critics of lacking a “moral right” to criticise the 83-year-old leader’s policies. That country’s opposition leader Michael Sata branded Zimbabwean’s opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai a Western puppet “financed to cause trouble in Zimbabwe”.
Kaunda, one of the few African statesmen with Mugabe’s liberation war credentials, said Zimbabwe’s economic and political woes had the finger prints of former colonial power, Britain, which he accused of “broken promises” over land reforms.
"Mugabe should not be demonised... he will not accept any humiliation,” Kaunda told the Reuters news agency. “He needs to be talked to see sense in doing something to change things in Zimbabwe because he is a victim of broken promises from Britain.”
"We need to find an answer and not to throw accusations at him."
Kaunda said Zimbabwe required the immediate intervention of African leaders and this would have to be through talks that brought Mugabe and opposition leaders.
"What is happening in Zimbabwe needs to be solved and African leaders must get involved," he said.
Kaunda accused the British government of failing to honour a 1979 agreement to carry out land reforms in its former colony to rectify post-independence imbalances in land ownership between black and white.
Kaunda played a major role in the independence of Zimbabwe from Britain in 1980.
"I attended a meeting in London where (former British prime minister) Margaret Thatcher agreed to help Zimbabwe to carry out a land redistribution exercise, but when the Labour Party came to power, they withdrew from the programme," Kaunda said.
"I wonder when I hear Tony Blair calling Mugabe names because it is him that caused this problem and the West have no moral right to criticise Mugabe," he said.
Chiluba, who succeeded Kaunda as Zambian president, also entered the fray with an attack on Mugabe’s Western critics and media.
Chiluba said: “Why are these disturbances in Zimbabwe? I am not an expert. When I was in London, I was trapped by a lady called Clare Short (former British International Development Secretary). She asked me to comment on Zimbabwe. She wanted me to condemn.
“But independence is about land. If all of you were squatters, independence will be meaningless.
“President Mugabe has been patiently waiting and they have refused. So he has to take the bull by its horns. Among us we have stooges, they are using the land issue to ostracise (President) Mugabe.
“He has made Zimbabweans to see the meaning of independence.”
Chiluba also accused Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC of puppetry and playing to the whims of its Western backers.
“Cursed be the day their leader and the party were born,” Chiluba said in reference to Tsvangirai.On the Western media, Chiluba blasted: “CNN have a tendency to distort. They said I was dead because they wanted me dead so how can I believe them?”

Courtesy of Daily Mail, Zambia