US President Obama labels Mugabe a ‘dictator’

By Alex Bell
24 November 2009

US President Barack Obama on Monday night delivered his strongest rebuke yet to Robert Mugabe, labelling him a ‘dictator,’ while criticising his regime of ‘oppressors’ for their brutal treatment of human rights activists.

Obama was presenting the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and its founders and leaders, Magodonga Mahlangu and Jenni Williams. In his comments at Monday night’s ceremony in Washington DC, the US President lashed out at the oppressive rule under Mugabe, describing for the notaries at the ceremony how WOZA members have been repeatedly arrested and victimised for their peaceful actions.

“They have been gassed, abducted, threatened with guns, and badly beaten -- forced to count out loud as each blow was administered. Three thousand WOZA members have spent time in custody or in prison, sometimes dragged with their babies into cells,” Obama said.

The US President lauded Mahlangu’s efforts as an activist, saying the sacrifice of so many WOZA members is ‘testament’ to her work.

“By her example, Magodonga has shown the women of WOZA and the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors' power with their own power -- that they can sap a dictator’s strength with their own. Her courage has inspired others to summon theirs,” Obama said.

He also honoured both Mahlangu and Williams for showing others that the only way to teach love and non-violence is by example.
“They [WOZA] are a force to be reckoned with. Because history tells us, truth has a life of its own once it’s told. Love can transform a nation once it’s taught. Courage can be contagious; righteousness can spread; and there is much wisdom in the old proverb: that God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers,” Obama said.
Obama also directed a critical blow at the Mugabe regime and its ongoing brutality towards human rights defenders across the country.

“In the end, history has a clear direction -- and it is not the way of those who arrest women and babies for singing in the streets. It’s not the way of those who starve and silence their own people, and cling to power by threat of force,” Obama said.

Tens of thousands of women have joined WOZA in standing up for human rights and speaking out about Zimbabwe’s worsening economic, social and political conditions. Since its founding in December 2002, WOZA has staged more than 100 non-violent marches in support of democratic reform and women’s empowerment. As a result, WOZA has often been the target of severe police brutality, with Mahlangu and Williams as well as thousands of other WOZA supporters, being arrested many times for their participation.
“I feel both great excitement for the recognition of my work with WOZA and sadness because although my work has gained recognition internationally, in my own country I have been labeled an enemy of the state,” said Mahlangu in reaction to the award. “Now I know I am not alone, the world is watching and one day [Zimbabwe] shall be a normal society - with the determination of the members of WOZA, anything is possible.”