Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, accused by his critics of rigging three successive elections, on Monday defended his democratic record and his management of an economy in its worst crisis in decades. At a ceremony celebrating 25 years of independence from Britain, Mugabe also defended his controversial land reform programme which seized white-owned property for landless blacks, saying it was part of a process of empowering Zimbabweans impoverished by nearly a century under British rule.
"In Zimbabwe land governs the ballot. It is a symbol of sovereignty. It is the economy. It remains the core social question of our time," the 81-year-old veteran leader told about 40,000 people who thronged a sports stadium in Harare.
In power since independence in 1980, Mugabe is largely isolated by Western powers who back opposition charges that he has rigged major polls in 2000, 2002 and last month's parliamentary elections.
Critics say Mugabe has ruined one of Africa's most promising economies in his fight to retain power, leading to shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange, an unemployment rate of some 70 percent and triple-digit inflation.
Mugabe blamed the crisis on World Bank and International Monetary Fund-sponsored programmes in the 1990's.
"Our experiment with the ruinous economic structural adjustment programmes appear to have unleashed mayhem in the economy. We are a lot wiser now," Mugabe said.
Mugabe recounted his government's investments in education and health over the past 25 years, but said the country still faced a big challenge in tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic, estimated to kill over 2,500 Zimbabweans each week.
Mugabe delivered his speech from a podium draped with posters hailing the land reforms, including one urging Zimbabweans to "Work the land, create jobs and shame our detractors".
At a party he hosted on Sunday night as part of independence celebrations, Mugabe said sacrifices made by many for Zimbabwe's struggle had laid the foundation for a strong and resilient nation prepared to defend its resources.
"Perhaps this is why the British find us a very proud, determined, solid and very stubborn and unyielding people, especially where it involves our birthright, the land," he said. "It is why we say Zimbabwe shall never be a colony again."
Mugabe said many nations, especially the "Frontline States" of Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania, had paid a heavy price to advance Zimbabwe's freedom struggle in the 1970s.
Mugabe bestowed Zimbabwe's highest national awards posthumously on the late founder presidents of Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and Tanzania, and former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda for stoutly backing Zimbabwe's independence war.
Political analysts say Mugabe's small guest list for Monday's party - limited largely to African leaders who have offered him political solidarity in the face of Western criticism - demonstrates his isolation.
Monday's party has been overshadowed by opposition charges that Mugabe's ZANU-PF cheated in last month's polls. The ruling party claimed a two-thirds majority in parliament giving it sweeping powers to change the constitution at will. The poll prompted a chorus of condemnation from the opposition and Western powers that political analysts said had further dented Mugabe's international credibility. Mugabe denies ZANU-PF has rigged polls and on Monday said Zimbabwe did not need lessons on democracy from the West.
"We made our democracy and we owe it to ourselves, not to anyone, least of all Europeans. Until we beat them at the battlefield, Britain and her kith and kin here, would not concede voting rights to Africans. Let it be forever remembered that it was the bullet that brought the ballot," he said.