US-based Pan-African organizations have called for an end to Western sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and many other senior figures in his ZANU-PF party.
The groups pledged support to Mr. Mugabe and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi saying the two are being persecuted because of their resistance to “Western imperialism.”
The pan-African organizations have called a demonstration called “Millions March in Harlem” in mid-August in support of Mr. Mugabe and the beleaguered Libyan head of state, calling for an end to NATO bombing of pro-Gadhafi Libyan targets.
Organizers say they will also campaign for better education and housing for New York City's black population.
March sponsors include the Nation of Islam, the December 12th International Secretariat, the New Black Panther Party and the International Association Against Torture. They are hoping to amass one million participants in the march.
Omowale Clay, a spokesman for the Millions March in Harlem, tells Sithandekile Mhlanga that he and his fellow organizers believe President Mugabe is being harrassed by the West over the land reform program he launched in 2000.
The United States, the European Union and others imposed travel and financial restrictions on Mr. Mugabe and about 200 other officials and supporters of ZANU-PF and and related companies in response to alleged human rights violations and election-rigging in ballots in 2002 and subsequently.
Most economists say the land reform program which dispossessed most white commercial farmers, devastated Zimbabwe's agricultural sector and put the country on the past to economic collapse which reached its nadir in 2008-2009.