Mugabe says Zimbabweans must protect resources from foreign 'vandals'

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe inspects the guard of honour during a ceremony in Harare, Monday Aug. 10, 2015. (AP / Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabweans failed in their responsibility to protect a popular lion named Cecil that was killed by an American in an allegedly illegal hunt, President Robert Mugabe said Monday.

In his first public comments about the lion, Mugabe said Zimbabweans should protect their natural resources from what he called foreign vandals.

"All the natural resources are yours. Even Cecil the lion is yours. He is dead but yours to protect, and you failed to protect him," Mugabe said in a televised speech marking Heroes' Day, a national holiday honouring fighters who died in the war to end white minority rule.

"There are vandals who come from all over. Some maybe just ordinary visitors, but there are others who want to vandalize, to irregularly and illegally acquire part of those resources," Mugabe said.

"All this wildlife is yours, we should protect them," he said. "They should not be shot by a gun, it's a sin. Or an arrow. I was stopped from killing animals with an arrow when I was seven or eight years old. I was told: 'These are God's creatures."'

Zimbabwe has a legal hunting industry, though wildlife officials said James Walter Palmer, the American who killed Cecil, did not have authorization for the hunt.

A Zimbabwean Cabinet minister has called for the extradition of Palmer, who says he relied on his professional guides to ensure the hunt was legal.

Two Zimbabweans -- a professional hunter and a farm owner -- have been charged in Cecil's killing.