I won't step down, vows Mugabe

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe yesterday said it would be "foolhardy" for him to step down after winning a new term in office just months ago, rejecting reports that he planned to make way for a new leadership.

Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and South Africa denied on Monday any role in a "Mugabe exit plan" said by a Zimbabwean newspaper to be aimed at ending the country's worsening political and economic crisis. "Only a few months ago, the people elected me to serve them and it would be absolutely counter-revolutionary and foolhardy for me to step down," Mr Mugabe told reporters during a visit to neighbouring Zambia.

At a ceremony to honour founding Zambian president and liberation hero Kenneth Kaunda, Mr Mugabe reaffirmed his tough stance, adding he would never agree to be exiled from home. "I am not retiring. I will never, never go into exile. I fought for Zimbabwe and when I die I will be buried in Zimbabwe, nowhere else," he said to applause.

Mr Kaunda praised Mr Mugabe for leading Zimbabwe from colonial rule, but warned against the dangers of seeking revenge, adding that Africans had more pressing problems like the HIV/AIDS pandemic and crushing poverty to worry about.

The 78-year-old Mr Mugabe, who has ruled since 1980, faces international isolation over his seizure of white-owned farm land for redistribution to landless blacks and a controversial election victory last March.

The economy is in its fourth year of recession, and critics say the land campaign has worsened food shortages threatening seven million Zimbabweans with starvation. Mr Mugabe accuses former colonial ruler Britain of spearheading an international campaign against his policies.

Zimbabwe's Sunday Mirror said authorities in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Britain had proposed a plan for Mr Mugabe to hand power to a chosen successor before the end of his current term in 2006.