Gambia News : Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai Is "Puppet Of The West' -Gambian President

Jul 04,2008 00:00 by editor

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh Thursday slammed Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as a puppet of the West and called upon Africans to support Zimbabwe and not give into Western pressure.

"Morgan Tsvangirai is a blue-eyed boy and puppet of the West," Jammeh told Gambian state television GRTS when he arrived back in Gambia Thursday from the African Union summit in Egypt.

At the A.U. summit the African leaders Wednesday called for a unity government in Zimbabwe, but on his return Jammeh insisted that Mugabe's re-election in a poll in which he was the only candidate last Friday was "valid".

The Gambian president, who came to power in 1994 in a bloodless coup but has since won elections, dismissed the western criticism of Zimbabwe's poll.

"We Africans should learn a lesson from this. They (the West) think they can dictate to us and this is not acceptable," Jammeh said.

"Africans should stand for Zimbabwe. After all, what did the West do for Africa?"