President Robert Mugabe of the Republic of Zimbabwe has urged Africans to stand up to the Western imperialist states. Mugabe has taken a principled stand against western interference in the internal affairs of the continent., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Let's stand up to West
Tuesday, 31 January 2012 00:00
From Munyaradzi Huni in ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Zimbabwe Herald
PRESIDENT Mugabe has warned that recolonisation of Africa might take place if leaders fail to handle issues as the continent's founding fathers used to do.
He said the AU should not rush to recognise Libya's National Transitional Council, but look at exactly what happened in that country leading to the callous murder of Colonel Muammar Gadaffi.
The President said America and Europe have ran out of resources and "they will come to Africa" as the continent continues to discover more resources.
Speaking during the session on Peace and Security here yesterday, President Mugabe said Africa should have said "No, No" to the bombing of Libya by NATO.
Zimbabwe is a member of the AU Peace and Security Commission.
"We fought imperialism and colonialism and forced them out of Africa . . . Our founding fathers did not have the means, but they stood up and said ‘no' but here we are absolutely silent.
"We should have said no, no to NATO," said the President adding that due to the silence, "Gadaffi was killed in broad daylight, his children hunted like animals and then we rush to recognise the NTC."
He said it was not the mandate of the Peace and Security Commission to recognise the NTC and the summit "should look at what happened and we should be deciding whether to recognise the NTC or not."
"Well, well that was Libya. Who will be next?" asked the President.
He said NATO had now discovered that "we are toothless bulldogs" and "they can come in and out" of the continent without anyone challenging them.
"This is not what our founding fathers would have thought would happen. We don't certainly represent them properly if we take that stance. So I am saying let's look at ourselves Mr Chairman, look at ourselves and look at Europe.
"I saw a picture yesterday of Gadaffi shaking hands with Sarkozy in France after they invited him there, but those hands that Gadaffi was shaking were the hands that were going to kill him a few months later.
"How far then do we go in associating with such people?
"They have an economic crisis in Europe, they have exhausted their resources.
"Africa still has plenty of them. We are discovering more oil, more minerals, gold more diamonds. We still have our natural resources, natural gas, so another recolonisation might take place. Let us take care, all of us. It has not just happened to Gadaffi.
"America will need more oil, Europe needs more oil," he said, adding that soon after killing Gadaffi, America and Europe rushed to apportion themselves oil.
The President said he was there when the Organisation of African Unity was formed in 1963 in Ethiopia and he went on to attend its next meeting in 1964 in Cairo, Egypt, before he was arrested by the Rhodesian regime.
"You redeemed me (freeing him from jail), you redeemed Mandela and many more and we thank you because you are the successors of the founding fathers who actually did it.
"If they did it, you did it but this time there are things you are not doing which they would have done. Let us be like them," he said to thunderous applause from the delegates.
South African President Jacob Zuma was chairing the session and soon after the President's speech, a clearly livid and incoherent NTC representative took to the floor but some delegates were already walking out.
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