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 UNITED NATIONS (AP) - President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe defended his record Wednesday as the head of the southern African country now reeling from runaway inflation and unemployment — saying drought and sanctions were the cause of the country's problems, not his policies.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Mugabe also absolved police forces that last week violently suppressed labor demonstrators in the capital Harare. He said his controversial land reform program, in which white farmers were forced to turn over their land six years ago, would yet prove successful.
Speaking in the late afternoon shortly after delivering his country's address at the annual opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the 82-year-old president, who assumed power in 1980 in what had been the last British colony in Africa, appeared weary and reflective.
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