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Mugabe compares Bush, Blair to Hitler at UN event
Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:51 PM ET173
By Philip Pullella
ROME (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday railed against U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling them "international terrorists" bent on world domination like Adolf Hitler.
Mugabe departed from his text at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to accuse Bush and Blair of illegally invading Iraq and looking to unseat governments elsewhere.
"Must we allow these men, the two unholy men of our millennium, who in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini formed (an) unholy alliance, formed an alliance to attack an innocent country?" he asked rhetorically.
"The voice of Mr Bush and the voice of Mr Blair can't decide who shall rule in Zimbabwe, who shall rule in Africa, who shall rule in Asia, who shall rule in Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall rule in Iraq," he said.
Mugabe accuses Britain and the United States of working to unseat him because of his forcible redistribution of white-owned commercial farms among blacks, which has helped plunge his country into its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980.
"Is this the world we desire? The world of giants and international terrorists who use their state muscle in order to intimidate us? We become the midgets," he said.
Some delegates applauded his fiery anti-Western speech several times.
But U.S. Ambassador Tony Hall, who protested against Mugabe's presence at the celebrations, later told Reuters it was "very unfortunate" that the Zimbabwean leader had politicized an event that was supposed to draw attention to world hunger.
"I think he chews up his own people and spits them out," said Hall, who visited Zimbabwe in August. "He has taken a perfectly good country and ruined it."
Blair's spokesman told reporters: "Nothing that Mr Mugabe says surprises us or will deflect us from our view of what is going on in Zimbabwe, which is far from a laughing matter".
Aid groups have estimated 5 million of Zimbabwe's 12 million people may need food aid this year. Critics say Mugabe's policies have considerably worsened their plight, though he denies this.
In his speech, Mugabe defended the land redistribution, saying it was needed to redress the "gross imbalances" of British colonialism.
"AGENT OF IMPERIALISM"
The European Union slapped a travel ban on Mugabe after accusations of vote rigging in parliamentary polls in 2000 and in Mugabe's re-election two years later. But he is allowed to travel to EU countries to attend U.N.-sponsored events.
Relations between the United States and Zimbabwe have also soured in recent years, Washington accusing Mugabe's government of human rights abuses and election rigging.
In January U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Zimbabwe alongside Cuba, Belarus, Myanmar, Iran and North Korea as "outposts of tyranny".
U.S. officials said last month Washington was preparing to impose travel sanctions on Mugabe, members of his government and their extended families.
Mugabe attacked U.S. envoy Hall as an "agent of imperialism" and then thanked FAO Secretary-General Jacques Diouf for inviting him despite the U.S. protest.
While all the other leaders who addressed the assembly from a lectern did so standing alone, Mugabe was flanked by two bodyguards who stood inches away as he accused Bush and Blair of creating "an inferno" in Iraq.
(Additional reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa, Katherine Baldwin)
Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:51 PM ET173
By Philip Pullella
ROME (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday railed against U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling them "international terrorists" bent on world domination like Adolf Hitler.
Mugabe departed from his text at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to accuse Bush and Blair of illegally invading Iraq and looking to unseat governments elsewhere.
"Must we allow these men, the two unholy men of our millennium, who in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini formed (an) unholy alliance, formed an alliance to attack an innocent country?" he asked rhetorically.
"The voice of Mr Bush and the voice of Mr Blair can't decide who shall rule in Zimbabwe, who shall rule in Africa, who shall rule in Asia, who shall rule in Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall rule in Iraq," he said.
Mugabe accuses Britain and the United States of working to unseat him because of his forcible redistribution of white-owned commercial farms among blacks, which has helped plunge his country into its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980.
"Is this the world we desire? The world of giants and international terrorists who use their state muscle in order to intimidate us? We become the midgets," he said.
Some delegates applauded his fiery anti-Western speech several times.
But U.S. Ambassador Tony Hall, who protested against Mugabe's presence at the celebrations, later told Reuters it was "very unfortunate" that the Zimbabwean leader had politicized an event that was supposed to draw attention to world hunger.
"I think he chews up his own people and spits them out," said Hall, who visited Zimbabwe in August. "He has taken a perfectly good country and ruined it."
Blair's spokesman told reporters: "Nothing that Mr Mugabe says surprises us or will deflect us from our view of what is going on in Zimbabwe, which is far from a laughing matter".
Aid groups have estimated 5 million of Zimbabwe's 12 million people may need food aid this year. Critics say Mugabe's policies have considerably worsened their plight, though he denies this.
In his speech, Mugabe defended the land redistribution, saying it was needed to redress the "gross imbalances" of British colonialism.
"AGENT OF IMPERIALISM"
The European Union slapped a travel ban on Mugabe after accusations of vote rigging in parliamentary polls in 2000 and in Mugabe's re-election two years later. But he is allowed to travel to EU countries to attend U.N.-sponsored events.
Relations between the United States and Zimbabwe have also soured in recent years, Washington accusing Mugabe's government of human rights abuses and election rigging.
In January U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Zimbabwe alongside Cuba, Belarus, Myanmar, Iran and North Korea as "outposts of tyranny".
U.S. officials said last month Washington was preparing to impose travel sanctions on Mugabe, members of his government and their extended families.
Mugabe attacked U.S. envoy Hall as an "agent of imperialism" and then thanked FAO Secretary-General Jacques Diouf for inviting him despite the U.S. protest.
While all the other leaders who addressed the assembly from a lectern did so standing alone, Mugabe was flanked by two bodyguards who stood inches away as he accused Bush and Blair of creating "an inferno" in Iraq.
(Additional reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa, Katherine Baldwin)
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