Robert Mugabe tells opposition to 'go hang'
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told critics of his disputed re-election to "go hang" dismissing his rivals as "Western-sponsored stooges" at a liberation war commemoration that was boycotted by his principal challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Speaking in the local Shona language, in colloquial phrases he does not usually use when speaking in English, Mugabe called on Tsvangirai to accept defeat:
"Those who are smarting from defeat can commit suicide if they so wish. But I tell them even dogs will not sniff at their flesh if they choose to die that way," he said.
He described Tsvangirai as the "enemy" in his party's midst during the shaky coalition brokered by regional leaders after the last disputed and violent poll in 2008.
"We have thrown the enemy away like garbage. They say we have rigged, but they are thieves"