Tears and tributes as leaders, supporters bid farewell to Zimbabwe's Mugabe

Mourners arrive for the state funeral for the country's founder and longtime ruler Robert Mugabe at a national sports stadium in Harare, Zimbabwe, September 14, 2019. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's founder Robert Mugabe was honoured as an icon, principled leader and African intellectual giant at a state funeral on Saturday, after a week of disputes over his burial threatened to embarrass President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mugabe led Zimbabwe for 37 years, from independence until he was ousted by the army in November 2017, by which time he was viewed by many at home and abroad as a power-obsessed autocrat who unleashed death squads, rigged elections and ruined the economy to keep control.