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Posted on 10/16/2005 6:07:17 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The United States has expressed "amazement" at a United Nations invitation to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to address a hunger conference in Rome on Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
"I find it amazing they've invited Mr Mugabe to speak at the 60th anniversary, who in a way has done so much to hurt the hungry, and who has absolutely turned his back on the poor," said Tony Hall, US ambassador to the UN food agencies in Rome.
"I find it amazing. What can he possibly say to us at the conference, when he has done so much to hurt his own people? Food has been used as a weapon against his own people," Hall said late on Friday.
Mugabe, despite a travel ban imposed by the European Union, confirmed his attendance with the organisers on Friday afternoon, an FAO spokesperson said. He is expected to travel to Rome on Sunday.
Nine heads of state, including those from Italy, Brazil, Venezuela, Botswana and Ecuador, will take part in Monday's ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the Rome-based UN food agency.
The FAO will use the occasion to draw attention to the plight of the world's hungry.
Hall, a former Democrat Congressman from Ohio, said he will attend the conference on Monday and listen to Mugabe's speech.
"He will speak. We will listen. I'm not going to applaud. Nor do I think we should welcome him here. The last thing I want to do as a representative of my country is give him credibility."
The ambassador said he visited Zimbabwe recently "and I witnessed so many people who were thrown out in the cold".
"The country used to be a net exporter of food and now a good portion of the people have to be fed," said Hall, who was on a tour of World Food Programme aid stations in the stricken Southern African country.
Mugabe (81) has been banned from travelling to the European Union since targeted sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe by Brussels and the US after he won a disputed presidential election in 2002.
He has managed to evade the ban on several occasions, such as the Vatican invitation to attend Pope John Paul II's funeral last April and for UN conferences.
The US labelled Zimbabwe one of the world's six "outposts of tyranny" in January and along with the EU maintains a freeze on Mugabe's financial assets and those of his associates.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, says the US and EU are punishing him for his controversial seizures of 5 000 white-owned farms and their redistribution to blacks.
Hosting a UN conference on food safety in Africa in Harare earlier this month, he defended his policy of land seizure, which many blame for the collapse of his country's agricultural sector.
"Zimbabwe’s much-vilified land-reform programme is our response to the challenge of empowering more of our people, and therefore creating a wider base of farmers in the country," he said.
As dignitaries gather for the 60th anniversary in Rome, Hall's comments on Mugabe's attendance are likely to further stoke a diplomatic spat over the arrest in Harare of US ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell.
The US State Department said Dell had "inadvertently wandered into a poorly marked military area" near Mugabe's house, adding that it had accepted Zimbabwe's apologies.
ping
The UN would have invited Adolf Hitler to speak at the No Human Skin for Lampshades Conference, had it been in existence at the time.
Not to mention he's also an out and out racist.
Mugabe is just the kind of leader the UN loves to work with.
You said it. Talk about hell-bound enterprises. The UN will be thrown into the lake of fire before all is said and done, because it reeks of Satan.
Bumps to everyone's comments on this thread so far.
The UN, in effect, imo, sanctioning Mugabe and his actions .. incredible.
Altho aFRika isn't the only country that "gets away" with it, either.
Mugabe the arrogant racist and thief ---- steals the productive farms, gives them to his cronies who can't or won't farm ----- and personally "managed" his previously productive nation into a turd world starving zoo ----- YET, the U.N. invites this idiot to speak to the U.N about world hunger...
^^
Actually, the invitation is perfectly logical. Mugabe's resume matches that of many of these pampered UN crooks. I am willing to bet that Koffi, for example, got to the top through all sorts of criminal activity. These people just view their corrupt and immoral activities as business as usual.
I think its a good choice,who better to speak on starvation than a man who has single handedly starved so many.
This doesnt surprise me in the least . In fact he may well be in training for Kofi Annan's job.
Why does this surprise anyone when the UN placed Syria and Cuba on the Human Rights Commission.
Isn't that like inviting a pedophile to speak at a conference focusing on child safety? Or how about inviting the DC snipers to hold a talk on gun control?
How about O J Simpson as the head speaker at the Convention of Abused and Battered Women?
I have to get out my copy of "ATLAS SHRUGGED" and re-read it. Too much is happening that is printed in that book.
How about O J Simpson as the head speaker at the Convention of Abused and Battered Women?
I have to get out my copy of "ATLAS SHRUGGED" and re-read it. Too much is happening that is printed in that book.
He does know quite a bit about starving people, so he is somewhat of an authority.
Does anyone remember in the 80's how the Libs said that Communist piece of crap was the savior of Africa? Have those people ever been right about anything?
Wow! Thank you U.N for showing us what a scumbag you really are,-- again!
Invite Mugaby to address hunger, I don't know whether it is funny or sad.
But, can he evade a shoulder-launched Stinger? He's FLYIN' [hint hint] to all these places, people - C'MON already!
As to the criticism of Mugabe by Tony Hall...
Well said, Mr. Hall!
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