British MPs Demand Mugabe be Stripped of ’knighthood’ Honour

British MPs on Friday night, launched an all-party campaign, pressing on the government, to strip the Zimbabwe leader, Robert Mugabe, of the ‘Honorary Knighthood’ he received from the British Queen.

The MPs declared: “It is abhorrent that the “Zimbabwe’s murderous dictator” retained the honor despite his appalling human rights record, including beating, torturing and killing opponents”.

The MPs also said they are wary of handing Mugabe ammunition for his propaganda war against his country’s old rulers.

Mugabe was made an honorary Knighthood Commander of the Order of the Bath by the former British Prime Minister John Major’s Tory government in 1994 - for significant contributions to relations between Britain and its former colony.

In 2003, the immediate past Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to look at withdrawing the honor, with the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee calling for Mugabe to be stripped of it. But no action was taken then.

Under British custom, ministers can ask the Queen to cancel a Knighthood on the grounds of someone’s unworthiness to hold it. The action would come through the Forfeiture Committee, which advises on honors.

The opposition Liberal Democrats have now written to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, who chairs the committee, asking him to ‘urgently consider removing the title from Mugabe.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Ed Davey said “doubts were initially raised in 1994 over whether Mugabe should have been awarded the honour in the first place, because of his role in massacres of Zimbabweans”.

“Mugabe’s fitness to hold this honor, Davey added, “has further deteriorated with his actions in recent years and months. Surely, a man prepared to steal an election is not worthy of an honor from the Queen”.

This is not the first time Mugabe is being humiliated over the British honor. Early last year, a British university was forced to withdraw an honorary doctorate degree it awarded to the Zimbabwean president, citing his poor human rights record and insensitivity towards the economic and other sufferings of ordinary Zimbabweans.

As far as the British knighthood is concerned, very few knighthoods have been withdrawn. Former Romanian “tyrant” Nicolae Ceausescu, was stripped of his title only three days before he was executed at the end of 1989.

In the case of Mugabe, the UK Foreign Office told the furious MPs on Friday night: “We are listening carefully to the views of those who wish to see Mugabe’s knighthood removed; and we don’t rule out taking action”.

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has insistently accused the 84-year-old Zimbabwean leader of “trying to steal” the March 2008 Zimbabwean election, whose final results have still not been declared.

Source African Press Agency

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