Mugabe Nobel peace prize draws scorn

A Chinese peace award to President Robert Mugabe has drawn scorn from the opposition, which described the honour as a mockery to Zimbabweans, who, they say, have been subjected to gross human rights abuses by the veteran leader.

Mugabe was awarded the Confucious Peace Prize, which is dubbed China's Nobel Peace Prize, after reportedly beating off competition from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and South Korean President Park Geun-hye, much to the irritation of the opposition.

"It makes a mockery of the word 'award'," main opposition MDC-T spokesman Obert Gutu said. Robert Mugabe has done everything a winner of a peace award shouldn't do.

He has run down Zimbabwe, from being a breadbasket of southern Africa to a basket case in a short period of 35 years.