The chairman of an award dubbed China’s Nobel peace prize has defended the decision to honour Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean President, for supposedly “injecting fresh energy” into the global quest for harmony.
Mr. Mugabe, who has been accused of using systematic violence and torture to maintain his 35-year grip on power, recently became the latest recipient of China’s Confucius peace prize.
The Beijing-run Global Times newspaper said 91-year-old Mugabe had beaten off competition from candidates including the Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, and the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye.
“Ever since Robert Mugabe was sworn in as the president of Zimbabwe in the 1980s, he has worked hard to bring political and economic order to the country and to improve the welfare of the Zimbabwean people by overcoming hardship,” the prize committee argued in a statement.
The committee praised Mr. Mugabe’s stewardship of the 54-state African Union after he became its chairman earlier this year.
News of Mr. Mugabe’s Chinese award sparked fury among opposition groups in Zimbabwe and ridicule among human rights activists.
“The rule of Mugabe is paved with blood, violence, arson and cruelty,” Gorden Moyo, the secretary general of the People’s Democratic Party, claimed on the Bulawayo 24 news website.
Mr. Moyo said his party was “utterly disgusted” with the Chinese tribute to Zimbabwe’s leader, whom he called “a warmonger... and a sadist who delights in the misery of the people”.
Qiao Damo, the committee’s chairman, told the Guardian he supported the decision to recognise the achievements of Mr. Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980. “If Zimbabwe did not have Mugabe as its President, the country would be facing great difficulty — even public security might be in danger,” Mr. Qiao said. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015
