20100803
reuters

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe summoned ambassadors from the United States, Germany and the European Union on Tuesday to admonish them for walking out of an event after President Robert Mugabe told Western powers to go "to hell" for their sanctions.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said the envoys left a Zimbabwe national heroes' shrine on Sunday immediately after Mugabe's speech at the burial of his sister Sabina. Protocol dictated that they should have stayed to the end of the proceedings and Mugabe's departure.

"I had summoned the ambassadors to convey our concern and disappointment," Mumbengegwi said at a news conference.

"Their conduct was clearly very, very disrespectful of our national shrine, Zimbabwe, its leaders, its fallen heroes and its people," he said, calling their actions "unacceptable".

U.S ambassador Charles Ray and his German counterpart Albrecht Conze told journalists they left the funeral because they felt that Mugabe's speech was disrespectful.

"When America is treated in the manner it was treated on Sunday, I will react," Ray said.

The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on state firms and travel restrictions on Mugabe and dozens of his associates nearly 10 years ago after a violent re-election campaign and at the start of sometimes violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms for black resettlement.

On Sunday, Mugabe accused his Western foes of not recognising Zimbabwe as an independent state of native black citizens with rights over its land and natural resources.