President Mugabe has castigated Britain for displaying skulls of some of Zimbabwe's heroes and heroines from the First Chimurenga in their museums as symbols of colonial conquest.

He said the British government had since invited Zimbabwe to repatriate the remains, adding that Government would collect them begrudgingly and bury them at the country's sacred shrines.

The President reiterated that sacred shrines such as the National Heroes Acre were a preserve of heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the country and were consistently loyal to the liberation cause.

He made the remarks while addressing thousands of Zimbabweans who thronged the National Heroes Acre in Harare yesterday for Heroes Day celebrations.

"Tanzwa kuti misoro yevanhu vedu, vakuru vedu, yanga yakaunganidzwa mumuseum kuBritain. Varikuti tizoitora. Tichaitora tichigunun'una kuti makaidimurireyi? WaMbuya Nehanda hameno kuti tichauwana here pakati pacho? (We are told that skulls of our people, our leaders, are being displayed in a British museum and they are inviting us to repatriate them. We will repatriate them, but with bitterness, questioning the rationale behind decapitating them)," he said.

"The remains of our heroes, sacred to us, which were taken out of the country during the colonial period, have now been identified in the British History Museum.

"The remains, skulls, we strongly believe are the skulls of beheaded heads of Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi, Chingaira Makoni, Chinengundu Mashayamombe, Mapondera, Mashonganyika and Chitekedza Chiwashira, among others.

"The First Chimurenga leaders, whose heads were decapitated by the colonial occupying force, were then dispatched to England, to signify British victory over, and subjugation of, the local population. Surely, keeping decapitated heads as war trophies, in this day and age, in a National History Museum, must rank among the highest forms of racist moral decadence, sadism and human insensitivity."