MORGAN Tsvangirai, the prime minister of Zimbabwe, has defended his support of president Robert Mugabe after 1,000 exiles booed him off a London stage.
Mr Tsvangirai, who was on the final leg of a tour of Europe and the United States to lobby for relief funds, was heckled and jeered by the Zimbabweans he addressed at Southwark Cathedral on Saturday as he tried to urge them to return.
Yesterday he
said it was understandable that exiles were nervous about going home.
"I understand very well, I understand some of them left under circumstances of involuntary exile," he said.
The prime minister agreed to join a government with Mr Mugabe in February, following disputed elections. In the past, he had been brutally assaulted by Mr Mugabe's supporters when he led the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he also said he understood the surprise at his recent co-operation with the president.
"It was the same with me, it was an extraordinary experience.
We all know of a post-conflict situation. We had a similar experience in 1980. Mugabe declared reconciliation with the very same enemies he was fighting. In South Africa Nelson Mandela did the same."
Mr Tsvangirai said Mr Mugabe had accepted Zimbabwe needed to have another election.
"Mr Mugabe has already moved, he has already accepted that this is a process of transition and after two years we should go for an election. It will be a fair election... we are transforming the institutions that were used to abuse people."
