adminProsper Ndlovu in Victoria Falls
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday told Europe and the United States that they were complicit in the “butchering of innocent women and children” in Palestine as he assumed the chairmanship of Sadc.Signalling a robust approach to international relations after taking over the chair from Malawi, President Mugabe said the international community’s failure to stop “precious” Israel from committing massacres in Gaza was “criminal”.
At least 1,980 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since fighting began on July 8, as well as 64 soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side.
The Gaza strip, home to 1,8 million Palestinians, has been under blockade since 2007, which has restricted the flow of goods as well as the movement of Palestinians in and out of the coastal enclave.
“This is the most brutal demonstration of man’s inhumanity to man, and it is criminal for the world to keep silent in the wake of such crimes against humanity,” he told the 34th Sadc summit in Victoria Falls. “We’ve seen attacks on hospitals and even UN units,” he went on.
“That has never happened elsewhere. Is Israel that precious, so precious that it cannot be stopped? The women lost their children, we saw them sighing and weeping.
“Why? Was it thought their wombs would yield, give birth to future terrorists who would trouble precious Israel? Or is it on the assumption that these children will be terrorists tomorrow, or that these women will give birth to future terrorists?”
To a hushed room, President Mugabe said the killing of innocent civilians by the United States-backed Israeli army was a serious crime against humanity.
The President associated himself with a Palestine solidarity message made by a recent meeting of Sadc ministers in Swakopmund, Namibia.
He said as he assumed the chairmanship of Sadc for the next 12 months, it would be “remiss of me if I conclude my remarks without reference to the recent brutalities that have been meted out against the Palestinian people.”
He said it was ironic that the United States and the European Union had taken a “moral high ground” as defenders of human rights and freedoms, but were complicit in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza by supplying weapons and shielding it from diplomatic censure.
“The Western world, which claims high moral ground on issues of human rights and the sanctity of life, have looked, with moral and academic indifference while the Israeli army continues to butcher innocent women and children under the false guise of fighting terrorists,” the Sadc chairman blasted.
“Well, well, well, the peace for Europe and America is the same peace that we want as a region, the same peace that people of Gaza want. We don’t advocate terrorism at all but the way to check it is not by killing innocent women and children in place said to be harbouring terrorists.”
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo