ROBERT MUGABE WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY WITH HIS WIFE…
ROBERT MUGABE WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY WITH HIS WIFE…
Robert Mugabe,
the longtime leader of Zimbabwe who was ousted in a military intervention last
week, will continue to live in the country with his wife, Grace, after a new
president takes over, says his spokesman...
Mr.
Mugabe, 93, who has not spoken or appeared in public since resigning as
president on Tuesday, does not wish to live anywhere else, his spokesman,George Charamba, said an interview.
“He’s
Zimbabwean,” Mr. Charamba said. “Where else would he live?” Mr. Mugabe, who had
led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, fell from power after firing Emmerson Mnangagwa, his vice president, early this month and then trying to arrest the nation’s
top military commander.
With
the military’s backing, Mr. Mnangagwa replaced Mr. Mugabe as leader of the
governing ZANU-PF party, and he is to be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president on Friday. Last week, Zimbabwe’s military commanders
placed Mr. Mugabe and his wife under house arrest —the culmination of a power struggle that had pitted Ms. Mugabe and her
political allies against Mr. Mnangagwa and the military. While Zimbabweans
cheered the end of Mr. Mugabe’s 37-year-rule, most citizens and politicians
have reserved their harshest criticism for Ms. Mugabe, 52, who had eliminated
rivals in an attempt to succeed her husband.
In
recent weeks, the Mugabes have been meeting with military officials to
negotiate their future, along with Mr. Charamba, a Roman Catholic priest
and a
few other individuals acting as mediators. According to the Constitution, a
president does not have immunity after leaving office. The Mugabes are believed
to have accumulated vast wealth in Zimbabwe as well as in the Middle East and
Asia. Mr. Charamba said that the issue of immunity had not come up during the
talks, and declined to comment on other topics under discussion. Col. Over son
Mugwizi, a spokesman for the military, denied news reports that it had guaranteed immunity for Mr. Mugabe.
In recent years, Mr. Mugabe has frequently visited Singapore for medical
treatment, leading some politicians and diplomats to speculate that he would
move there. Other African strongmen, like Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, were forced to spend their last years in
exile after being toppled from power. But there have been few calls in the
political class to treat Mr. Mugabe harshly. Perhaps because of the central role Mr. Mugabe has played in the nation’s history and his advanced age, even
ZANU-PF officials who led efforts to impeach him have simply said that he
should be allowed to rest. The day after he resigned, the state newspaper, The
Herald, had an article with a banner headline on the front page that read,
“ZANU-PF Pays Tribute to Mugabe.
Even Mr. Mugabe’s longtime rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader
of the Movement for Democratic Change, who was often the target of Mr. Mugabe’s
brutal repression of the political opposition, expressed little interest in
pursuing the fallen leader. Asked whether Mr. Mugabe should be prosecuted, Mr.
Tsvangirai said. No, I don’t think so, I think to pursue the old man would be a futile exercise. I think he should go and rest his last days.’’
Mr. Charamba said that Mr. Mugabe would not attend the
swearing-in ceremony of his successor on Friday. “Emotions and feelings are running high,” he said. “It’s
important for us not to expose a 93-year-old man to that.”
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