Dr Sentamu in dog collar protest against Mugabe (From York Press)

Dr Sentamu in dog collar protest against Mugabe

11:24am Monday 10th December 2007 in News By Mark Stead, mark.stead@thepress.co.uk

THE Archbishop of York has made a dramatic live TV protest - by cutting up his dog collar.

Furious Dr John Sentamu reached for a pair of scissors and snipped through the white band in a symbolic gesture attacking the regime of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

He said Mugabe had "taken people's identity and cut it to pieces", which had prompted him to do the same to his clerical collar - and he does not intend to wear it again until the leader of Zimbabwe is deposed.

Dr Sentamu, a long-standing and vociferous critic of Mugabe, was being interviewed live on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show yesterday morning when he made his point in theatrical style.

Referring to his dog collar, he said: "As an Anglican, this is what I wear to identify myself, that I'm a clergyman.

"You know what Mugabe has done? He's taken people's identity and literally, if you don't mind, cut it to pieces, and in the end, there's nothing.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to wear a dog collar, until Mr Mugabe's gone."

The Archbishop was speaking after Prime Minister Gordon Brown boycotted a European Union-Africa summit in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, because Mugabe - whose policies have been blamed for the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy and countless deaths from starvation - was also attending.

Dr Sentamu also criticised other African leaders, who insisted Mugabe be allowed to attend the Lisbon summit, for not opposing him.

He said: "Because of what is going on for me, there is this pernicious, self-destructing racism.

"A white man does it, the whole world cries. A black person does it, there is a certain sense of this is colonialism'.

"I'm sorry, I don't buy this. Africa and all the world have got to liberate Africa from this mental slavery and this colonial mentality - whenever there's anything you blame somebody else instead of yourself."

He said: "Why aren't we, as a world community, uniting against Mugabe?"

South African President Thabo Mbeke was singled out for particular criticism by Dr Sentamu for failing to put pressure on Mr Mugabe who, according to the Archbishop, has turned his country from "a bread basket into a basket case".

"(Mugabe) has actually taken a country into a sheer chaos and he's been so brutal that, in the long run, the world has got to say, if the South African people (and their leaders) won't do it, something's got to happen," he said.

The Press yesterday attempted to contact Dr Sentamu - who has called for people to "pray, march and protest" about the situation in Zimbabwe and the war-ravaged region of Darfur, in Sudan - for further comment on his protest, but were told he was "not doing any more interviews today" following his BBC appearance.