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Story highlights
- Mugabe: "Those who can't stomach the defeat, you can commit suicide"
- He won re-election July 31 with 61% of the vote
- The opposition party accuses the electoral commission of rigging the polls
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Monday the West and his political opponents can commit suicide if they cannot accept his recent re-election.
"Those who can't stomach the defeat, you can commit suicide. Even dogs will not sniff their carcasses," said the 89-year-old leader while addressing an event to commemorate veterans of Zimbabwe's war for independence.
It was his first public speech since the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declared him winner, with 61% of the vote, of the July 31 elections, beating Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change last week challenged the election results, accusing the electoral commission of rigging the polls for Mugabe's ZANU-PF.
"We will never go back on our victory. We do not know what is retreating," Mugabe said.
Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe is sworn in for his seventh term as Zimbabwe's President in August 2013. He resigned Tuesday, November 21, after nearly four decades in power.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe gestures towards the media in Geneva, Switzerland, at a 1974 conference convened to address the civil war in Rhodesia. After being imprisoned for 10 years in Rhodesia, Mugabe attended the peace talks as a leader of the guerrilla movement ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front). Rhodesia was the state that eventually became Zimbabwe.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe speaks to the press in Geneva in 1976. The following year he was elected president of ZANU-PF and commander-in-chief of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe holds a news conference in Salisbury -- now Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe -- in March 1980. He had just been elected as the first prime minister of Zimbabwe, helping to form the new country after British rule of Rhodesia came to an end.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
From left, NBC News moderator Bill Monroe, Newsday's Les Payne, the Chicago Sun Times' Robert Novak and NBC News' Garrick Utley speak with Mugabe during an episode of "Meet the Press" in 1980.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe speaks with his first wife, Sally, during an event in Salisbury in 1980. The pair were married until Sally died in 1992. They had one son, who died at age 4.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe holds hands with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi at the Organization of African Unity summit in August 1982.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe meets with French President Francois Mitterand in Paris in 1982.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe is seen with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi in 1983.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe walks hand in hand with American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson during the Summit of Non-Aligned Countries, which Harare hosted in 1986.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe delivers a speech in Harare in August 1986.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe poses for a photo with other leaders at a Commonwealth of Nations meeting in London in 1986. Pictured from left, in the back row, are Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Commonwealth Secretary-General S.S. Ramphal, Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke and Mugabe. In the front row, from left, are British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Bahamian Prime Minister Lynden Pindling and Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II toasts Mugabe during a banquet in the Queen's honor in Harare in October 1991. The Queen had last visited the territory that became Zimbabwe in 1947.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
US President Bill Clinton gestures while talking to Mugabe after a White House meeting in Washington in May 1995.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe marries Grace Marufu on August 17, 1996. Earlier in the year, he was re-elected President after all of his opponents dropped out of the race.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
British Prime Minister Tony Blair talks with Mugabe in October 1997, before the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe speaks during the Southern Africa trade and investment summit in Windhoek, Namibia, in October 2000. Earlier in the year, he implemented a controversial land-reform program that saw the seizure of land from some 4,000 white farmers.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe and Cuban President Fidel Castro are seen in Havana, Cuba, in September 2005.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
South African President Jacob Zuma walks with Mugabe at Harare International Airport in March 2010.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe addresses the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2010.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe cuts his birthday cake with his wife, Grace, and son Bellarmine Chatunga during celebrations in Harare in February 2011. Mugabe was turning 87.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Robert and Grace Mugabe arrive at the Vatican for the beatification ceremony of John Paul II in May 2011.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe delivers a speech at his party's annual national conference in December 2012. He vowed to overhaul business laws to require 100% black ownership of firms.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
The Mugabes attend Pope Francis' inauguration Mass in March 2013.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe and Chinese President Xi Jinping participate in a signing ceremony in Beijing in 2014.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe speaks at the ZANU-PF party's annual conference in December 2016. The party endorsed Mugabe as its candidate for the 2018 election.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe reviews the guard of honor during Zimbabwe's 37th Independence Day celebrations in April 2017.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe kisses his wife during Independence Day celebrations in April 2017. In early November, the sacking of Mugabe's longtime ally and vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was seen as a move to potentially clear the way for Grace Mugabe to succeed her 93-year-old husband.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe arrives to preside over a student graduation ceremony at Zimbabwe Open University in November 2017. It was his first public appearance since the military seized control of the nation and placed him under house arrest.
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Photos: Political life and career of Robert Mugabe
Mugabe meets with generals in Harare on November 19. Military leaders had been in talks with Mugabe over his exit.
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Was Zimbabwe's vote free and fair? 02:10
To the West "we are delivering democracy on a platter. Will you take?" asked Africa's oldest leader. "We say take it or leave it. We will never go back on our victory."
Some of the people that attended the event Monday had placards reading "Which Africa Observed Elections in Europe or America?"; "Come on, concede defeat"; "Obama: Zimbabwe will never be a second Chile"; "Thank you Zimbabwe for defending our sovereignty"; and "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again."
Tsvangirai -- who got 34% of the July 31 vote -- and officials of his MDC party boycotted the Monday event.
