Mugabe repeats threat to try whites for 'genocide'

ABUJA, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Friday repeated his threat to put whites on trial for the "genocide" of blacks during the 1970s guerrilla war against white rule.

Mugabe said during an official visit to Nigeria that Zimbabwe's minority whites were behind a relentless opposition campaign to end his 20-year-old rule of the former Rhodesia.

The former guerrilla leader said "Rhodesians" were trying to regain power through Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has demanded that he step down immediately.

"The MDC is actively supported by the Rhodesians and white farmers," Mugabe said in a lecture in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

"My government is set to deal with them by commencing trials of genocide against Zimbabwean people committed throughout the liberation war," he added.

Mugabe told supporters last week that he wanted whites including former Rhodesian leader Ian Smith put on trial for wartime atrocities.

"The whites, including Smith, will now stand trial for the genocide in this country. The Americans are still chasing after the Nazis and we will also start looking for the whites who fought with Smith. They must be arrested," Mugabe said then.

Smith, 81, who still lives in Zimbabwe, has challenged Mugabe to produce evidence but said he would welcome such a trial as a chance "to tell the world about this gangster."

The 76-year-old Mugabe is fighting for his political life in a deepening economic crisis which has ignited riots over soaring food prices.

MUGABE DEFENDS LAND SEIZURES

This year has seen the violent occupation of white-owned farms by self-styled liberation war veterans and other supporters of Mugabe.

Mugabe's critics say his policies are having a catastrophic impact on the economy, causing food shortages and job losses and depriving the country of foreign currency and tourism income.

At a news conference after the lecture in Abuja Friday, Mugabe defended his policy of handing over to poor blacks some of the big commercial farms owned by the country's white minority.

"What we are asking for is only five million hectares (14 million acres) of land out of 12.5 million hectares (30 million acres) owned by only 4,500 white farmers out of about 90,000 whites remaining in Zimbabwe," he said.

The forced land acquisition has led to confrontation between Mugabe and the West, notably former colonial power Britain, which demands compensation for seized farmland.

"Compensation can only be paid to white farmers if funds are made available by Britain," Mugabe said.

Britain says it will help pay for land redistribution to the black majority but only if farms are acquired on a willing-seller willing-buyer basis.

Land redistribution was provided for in the London talks at which Zimbabwe's independence was negotiated two decades ago, but London and Harare interpret the land clauses differently.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has held talks with Mugabe during the four-day state visit, said he was trying to mediate between the two fellow Commonwealth nations.

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