Mugabe stripped of honorary degree

EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 7 (UPI) -- The University of Edinburgh in Scotland has withdrawn the honorary degree it gave Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe in 1984.

At least two U.S. universities, the University of Massachusetts and Michigan State, are contemplating the same step, The Times of London reported Thursday. Mugabe is the first foreign leader to be stripped of a British honorary degree.

The Edinburgh University Senate held a special meeting Wednesday to vote on Mugabe. The university now plans to ask him to return the actual degree.

Mugabe became an international hero in 1980 when he ousted the white-minority government of the African country then known as Rhodesia. But in recent years, he has become a pariah because of his dictatorial government, which has led to a re-examination of his earlier career. Zimbabwe's economy collapsed after white farmers were expelled in a land redistribution and millions face hunger before the next harvest in March.

At Edinburgh, a special committee determined that the university has the power to withdraw an honorary degree. The panel also determined that Mugabe was responsible for the massacre of 20,000 people in Matabeleland in the early 1980s.