Mugabe Assails U.S., British Sanctions Threat

President Robert Mugabe accused the United States and Britain on Tuesday of mobilizing sanctions against his government, and he vowed to press ahead with a controversial land seizure program.

Mugabe said a U.S. bill that aims to press his government to ensure free elections and protect landownership, was “a bold insult to the people of Zimbabwe.”

“No nation, no matter how white and how powerful, should turn itself into some omnipotent juridical entity and . . . start bellowing orders or commandments on another,” Mugabe said in a speech to parliament.

The bill, endorsed this month by the House, takes a carrot-and-stick approach to the crisis in Zimbabwe ahead of the African nation’s presidential election next year.

It offers aid and economic enticements on the condition that Mugabe’s government end its sponsorship of violence and commit to equitable land reform.

If the electoral process is not deemed free or fair, the United States could impose travel and investment sanctions.

Mugabe accused the U.S. legislators of seeking “to punish our nation for undertaking its just role of correcting the historical inequity in land distribution.”

He also accused Britain of spearheading a European Union sanctions campaign, saying the former colonial power had not fulfilled its obligation to provide financial support for Zimbabwe’s land reforms.