Harare, Zimbabwe (PANA)--Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said recently he was not concerned or bothered by unkind comments about him made by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell while on a visit to South Africa in May.

Pres. Mugabe told a visiting delegation from the U.S. think-tank Carter Center, run by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, that Mr. Powell was not informed about the situation in Zimbabwe. The Secretary of State rebuked Pres. Mugabe for clinging to power, violating human rights and suppressing democracy, and threatened economic sanctions to force the Zimbabwean leader to change course.

"I hope we can put the right kind of pressure on him. We are pressing for a responsible set of political acts on the part of Mr. Mugabe in order to avoid the kind of crisis that is slowly building," Mr. Powell said.

But state radio quoted the veteran southern African leader as saying Mr. Powell�s comments, widely publicized in the country, did not bother him as they were uninformed, and invited U.S. representatives to Zimbabwe to find out the truth.

The Zimbabwe government is locked in a bitter fight with former colonial power, Britain, over its land reform plans. It has often accused London and Washington of misleading international opinion about its program to resettle landless Zimbabweans on unused farms owned by whites to derail the plan. It also says the two countries have not honored pledges of financial assistance they made for land reform in multilateral talks that ended a guerrilla war for independence in 1979.

In other developments, Pres. Mugabe launched his bitterest attack yet on Britain for opposing his government�s land reforms, saying the controversial process was irreversible. Speaking at the burial of Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of former fighters of Zimbabwe�s war of independence, who led controversial seizures of white-owned farms to press demands for the land reforms, Pres. Mugabe accused the British of mobilizing international opinion against his government. He vowed that government would press ahead to resettle landless Blacks on farms compulsorily acquired from whites.

"We are now entering the final phase of our struggle, the Third Chimurenga (revolution), and make no mistake about it, no one�the British included�will stop us from empowering our people by giving them back their land," he said. "Let the Tony Blairs (British Prime Minister) learn from our history, the history of struggle, which brought democracy and the rule of law, which they now talk about," Mr. Mugabe said, amid applause from thousands of people who braved the chilly morning weather to attend the funeral at the National Heroes Acre.

The Zimbabwean leader asked: "Where was Britain, the rule of law and democracy when Ian Smith tore up the constitution and declared UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence)?"

This was a reference to Zimbabwe�s last white colonial leader who defied Britain during his rule. Pres. Mugabe vowed that British "machinations" to mobilize international opinion against his government will not derail the land reform program, under which hundreds of thousands of landless peasants are being resettled on white-owned farms. "There can be no better tribute to him (Hunzvi) than proceeding with the program of giving back the land to the people to the finish. We are portrayed on the CNNs, BBCs and Sky News as violators of the rule of law, when in fact all they mean is taking away privileges from whites," he said.

The Zimbabwean government has clashed with the country�s 4,500 white farmers, who control 70 percent of Zimbabwe�s arable land, over its plans to acquire half of their land holdings to resettle landless peasants. The white farmers, backed by Britain and other European countries, oppose the plans, but have recently offered the government one million of the 12.5 million hectares they owe for the resettlement.

But Mugabe, who took the mourners back to the history of the armed struggle, which he led to independence, said the government will push through its land reforms without amendment. He said he would not send in the police or army to remove landless Black peasants occupying commercial farms.

"We can�t do that. We will never do that," he said, referring to appeals by international donors to send the police to evict the peasants from the farms. The Zimbabwean leader said the government had so far resettled 105,000 people on three million hectares of land formerly owned by whites, and expects to resettle an additional 400,000 before the end of the year.

He said while Europe was still pursuing Nazi war criminals years after the Second World War, Zimbabwe had forgiven Smith and others for killing tens of thousands of Blacks.

"Where is the hand of reconciliation in Europe? As recently as last week, they were taking a man on a wheelchair (in Australia) to court, to answer to charges of war crimes. We don�t hunt our Nazis here," Pres. Mugabe noted.

Photo: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe
Credit: Askia Muhammad