President Robert Mugabe described the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs as "an idiot" after an acrimonious meeting between the two at an African summit in Libya, Zimbabwe's state media reported Monday. The state Herald newspaper carried the remarks after a briefing Mugabe gave to Zimbabwean reporters at the end of last week's summit of the continentwide African Union.
U.S. Embassy officials in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, where Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson is visiting, would not comment on the remarks. According to the Herald paper, Mugabe said nothing came out of those talks."You wouldn't speak to an idiot of that nature.
I was very angry with him, and he thinks he could dictate to us what to do," Mugabe was quoted as saying. He said regional leaders supported the formation of a power-sharing government in February and then "you have the likes of little fellows like Carson saying 'do this, do that'.""Who is he? I hope he is not speaking for Obama. I told him he was a shame, a great shame being an African American," Mugabe was quoted as saying.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the former opposition, visited President Barack Obama in Washington last month as part of a trip to the United States and Europe to re-engage with Western leaders after a decade of Zimbabwean isolation. Mugabe is known for vitriolic outbursts against his critics, reserving some of his harshest comments for those who, like Carson, are black. Mugabe labeled Carson's predecessor, Jendayi Frazer, who is also black, as "that little girl trotting around the globe like a prostitute" to campaign against him. Frazer had criticized Mugabe's party over political violence and vote rigging surrounding disputed national elections in March 2008.
AP
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