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A
Chinese peace award to President Robert Mugabe has drawn scorn from the
opposition, which described the honour as a mockery to Zimbabweans, who, they
say, have been subjected to gross human rights abuses by the veteran leader. (Image source: NewsDay)
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Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe has been awarded China's alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize for
what the prize committee called his inspired national leadership and service to
pan-Africanism. The
91-year-old Mugabe is the latest in a series of critics of the West who have
received the Confucius Peace Prize, first awarded in 2010 amid Beijing's anger
and resentment over the granting of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese
dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Mugabe
has "overcome difficulties of all kinds and has strongly committed himself
to constructing his nation's political and economic order, while strongly
supporting pan-Africanism and African independence," the committee said in
announcing the award.
