Zimbabwe accuses 'racist' Blair and Howard

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard were accused of being racists today in a bitter attack by Zimbabwean officials.

The comments follow Mr Howard’s sharp criticism of Zimbabwe’s political and human rights record.

He described embattled President Robert Mugabe as an “unelected despot” and called on the Commonwealth not to lift the suspension of Zimbabwe from its decision-making councils.

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said Mr Howard and Mr Blair “have stood out as racists who want to divide the world on racial lines” and protect white interests in Commonwealth countries, the state Sunday Mail, a government mouthpiece, reported.

Critics of the Zimbabwean government have said officials often resort to playing the race card to deflect from the economic and political chaos in the country.

The readmission of Zimbabwe, a former British colony, to the councils is to be considered at a Commonwealth summit scheduled for December in Nigeria.

Zimbabwe was suspended for a year because of its deteriorating human rights record and disputed presidential elections narrowly won by Mugabe last year.

Independent observers, including Commonwealth monitors, said the presidential election was swayed by political intimidation by ruling party militants, corruption and vote rigging.

Moyo said Mr Howard’s campaign against Mugabe was a ”kangaroo court” that attempted to turn Commonwealth countries against Zimbabwe.

“We are convinced this is a kangaroo noise from a kangaroo prime minister who is frustrated the international community has refused to be used as a kangaroo court against Zimbabwe,” Moyo said, referring to the Australian prime minister as “coward Howard.”

Howard is a member of a Commonwealth troika on Zimbabwe, along with South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The two African presidents have been trying to bring Mugabe’s ruling party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to the negotiating table on the country’s deepening political and economic crisis.

Mugabe, at a state ceremony last week, dashed hopes of any early compromise with the opposition.

Moderates in both parties say Mbeki and Obasanjo are pushing for talks to begin before the Commonwealth summit in December.

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980. The deepening economic crisis is blamed partly on the state programme that seized thousands of commercial farms from the white minority for redistribution to black settlers. The programme is also blamed for exacerbating a hunger crisis that threatens nearly half of the population.