Riots in London: Mugabe Mocks “London Riots” after “Torture Camp” is Revealed

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe does not miss an occasion to hit back at his 'arch enemy' as he told Britain "to put out your own fires" and warned the country should focus on its own internal problems instead of interfering in his southern African nation.

Mugabe who was speaking on Tuesday whilst attending a military parade honouring Zimbabwe's armed forces, told reporters "London is burning," referring to three days of violence and lootings that have first affected London before spreading outside of the capital, the AFP reported.

"We don't have any fires here. Please leave us alone," the controversial leader also said.

Mugabe's dig at his country's former colonial power comes after years of tensed relations with the UK.

In the last decade, relations between Zimbabwe and the UK have become more tensed and inimical with Robert Mugabe frequently accusing the UK of sabotage.

Despite analysts pointing out that the endemic poverty that spread across the country in the last decade was a result of years of state institution corruption and inadequate socio-economic policies, the Zimbabwean President blamed Western powers and more specifically the UK for ruining the country and attempting to invade it.

As sanctions were imposed on Mugabe and the humanitarian situation declined, while allegations of human rights abused and persecutions of the Zanu PF political opponents continued to emerge, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown once refused to attend an African/European summit after Mugabe was invited and the UK also did not attend an address by President Mugabe at the 2008 UN Food Summit, stating that his presence there was "obscene".

Mugabe's latest move came after yesterday the broadcast of a documentary by Panorama unveiling torture camps in Zimbabwe's lucrative diamond fields, on BBC.

The main torture camp uncovered by the programme is known locally as 'Diamond Base' and is described as a remote collection of military tents, with an outdoor razor wire enclosure where the prisoners are kept.

The victims also accused the security forces of randomly setting dogs on the people who are held captive, while subjecting them to whippings.

"It is a place of torture where sometimes miners are unable to walk on account of the beatings," the report quoted a victim, who was released from the main camp in February, as saying.

"It is near an area known as Zengeni near Marange, said to be one of the world's most significant diamond fields. The camp is about one mile from the main Mbada mine that the EU wants to approve exports from," the report said, adding that the company that runs the mine was headed by a personal friend of President Robert Mugabe.

This calls into question the EU's decision to push for banned diamonds from the country to be accepted back onto world markets as accepted to it partially lift a trade ban from 2009, after regulators insisted that two mines in the area meet international standards.

While violence and lootings have spread across and outside of London in the last few days, comparing the socio-economic or political situation in Zimbabwe and the UK would be indecent. Clearly, Mugabe's country has suffered intensely in the last 20 years, mainly as a consequences of internal and not external policies.