Posted on 02/25/2003 2:56:25 AM PST by kattracks
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe blasted the West as an interfering "Big Brother" which is starving the developing world of trade and denying it the right to develop nuclear arms.
The embattled leader, addressing a summit of the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) here, also criticised US threats to wage war on Iraq.
"Iraq might have developed or desired to have developed arms of mass destruction but the United States has massive arms of that magnitude," Mugabe told an audience including the Iraqi vice president.
"Why should the United States determine what Iraq should do? By destroying their massive arms heaps they should surely lead by example."
Mugabe, a pariah in Western eyes whose country is struggling under sanctions imposed following violence in the run-up to his re-election a year ago, accused Britain of trying to re-impose control over its former colony.
"The United States, awakened to the implications of being sole superpower, joined by Britain as a born-again colonialist and other Western countries, have turned themselves into ferocious hunting bulldogs raring to go as they sniff for more blood," Mugabe said.
The Zimbabwe leader, who was recently vilified as a "monster" by the British tabloid press, has received a major boost from NAM with the summit of mainly developing nations set to call for the sanctions to be lifted.
It will also urge international support for Mugabe's controversial land-reform policies, under which thousands of white Zimbabweans have been driven from their farms, in a declaration later on Tuesday.
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