Mugabe tells Blair to 'go to hell'

Mugabe has been accused of acting in a 'dictatorial' fashion by Britain

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has told UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to "go to hell" after Britain endorsed his election rival Morgan Tsvangirai in next week's election.

Mugabe's outburst came on the eve of a Commonwealth summit in Australia where Blair is expected to call for immediate sanctions against Zimbabwe as punishment for its conduct towards European Union poll observers and journalists.

Blair has called Zimbabwe's decision to charge Tsvangirai and two other Movement for Democratic Change leaders with treason as an "outrage" and accused Mugabe of being "completely wrong, undemocratic and dictatorial."

Blair urged "strong and unequivocal" support from the international community for the MDC if it succeeded in ousting Mugabe in the March 9 poll.

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Blair, speaking on Friday as he left Britain for Australia, said: "It's important to make it quite clear that if the opposition do win in Zimbabwe they are given strong and unequivocal support and any attempt to interfere with the results would be an outrage to the democratic principles of the Commonwealth.

His comments were similar to those he made on Wednesday in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions.

But Mugabe, quoted by the official Herald newspaper on Friday, said: "Blair stood in parliament unashamedly to say the British government should stay ready to recognise and support the victory of MDC and should not stay ready to recognise the victory of ZANU-PF.

"But of course we say: 'Go to hell.' Go to hell, our people have decided and that is what matters to us.

"It's not the right or responsibility of the British to decide on our elections. We don't decide on their own and why should they poke their pink noses in our business?"

Tension is rising in Zimbabwe, where at least nine opposition members were injured on Thursday during a raid in which police arrested 38 people who had been involved in a clash with supporters of Mugabe.

Opponents accuse Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party of instigating a wave of violence against supporters of Tsvangirai.

The United States on Thursday blasted what it called a "campaign of repression orchestrated by the government of Zimbabwe" and warned Mugabe that he faced financial sanctions if he failed to respect the will of his people in the elections.

Mugabe is not expected to attend the Commonwealth summit, which will be opened by Britain's Queen Elizabeth on Saturday.