Posted on 09/01/2002 6:06:00 PM PDT by StopGlobalWhining
ZIMBABWE has demanded that Western governments stop using the World Summit on Sustainable Development as a platform to attack it.
Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who was reappointed to his Cabinet post by President Robert Mugabe this week, said Western governments were giving "strange interpretations" to issues in order to direct attention to Zimbabwe.
He said while the summit was dealing with the controversial issue of land tenure, this was "not a Zimbabwean issue".
" It is really strange that some people are trying to interpret that particular provision as dealing with Zimbabwe to direct attention to us," Moyo told the Sunday Times.
In the past two weeks, the British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian governments have all sought to put more international pressure on Zimbabwe, and said their leaders would raise the matter at the summit or in talks with President Thabo Mbeki, who chairs the summit.
Mugabe this week described his re-appointed ministers as a "war Cabinet" and vowed to intensify his controversial land redistribution programme despite growing international pressure. Zimbabwe came in for strong criticism from many quarters, with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw accusing Mugabe of "leading his country to ruin".
US Agency for International Aid official Andrew Natsios warned that "things are sliding fairly rapidly" as result of "wrong polices", while a less strident UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for reforms that were subject to the rule of law if the food crisis was to be resolved.
Moyo said countries like the US, members of the European Union and Australia had attempted to settle the land issue in exchange for clauses providing for good governance and the adherence to the rule of law.
"We will not allow a fundamental issue like land resolved in accordance with some amorphous, fuzzy notion of the rule of law as dictated to us by some kangaroos from Australia . . . It is a very serious matter and has to be resolved in accordance with national laws and the constitutions of the countries in question," said Moyo.
The Zimbabwean government did not, however, object to being discussed on the main summit agenda.
"We are happy that they want to talk about us. Zimbabwe is a perfect illustration of the problems associated with the legacy of colonialism and how sustainable development is dependent on land," he said.
But leaders such as Britain's Tony Blair, Canada's Jean Chretien, Australia's John Howard and New Zealand's Helen Clark were "lying" when they said they wanted to talk about instability in Zimbabwe.
"They want to talk about preserving white minority land ownership . . . There are only concerned about the 4 500 white farmers in Zimbabwe, not the more than 13 million blacks."
Land Minister Joseph Made said the acquisition of 10-million hectares of land over the past two years as part of the land redistribution programme has been a "major achievement" for the Zimbabwean government. Close to 300 000 families are being relocated onto the land and the government was now ready to begin the next phase of the "agrarian revolution".
There would now be major institutional reforms such as directing banks, who previously supported the 4 000 commercial farmers, to provide financing for the new settlers. The government's aim was to have the entire agricultural sector of the economy controlled by indigenous Zimbabweans, said Made.
Moyo said the commercial farmers had lied by claiming they were producing food for domestic use before they were evicted. Food for internal consumption was produced by smallholding and peasant farmers as commercial farmers were "into exotic farming such as horticulture, tobacco, wildlife and roses".
Moyo said the government had "an economic war to complete", adding: "This is why President Mugabe called us the war Cabinet."
He said the Zimbabwean government had never accepted its "so-called suspension" from the Commonwealth as the decision by a troika comprising Howard, Mbeki and Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo was "unprocedural".
"The Commonwealth is a community of nations, not a trio. Who are they and on what authority is their decision binding on Zimbabwe?"
Why is Australia throwing one more penny down the black hole of the brutal dictatorships of the African continent? They deserve nothing but contempt.
Seems the colonialists were absolutely correct.
That's why it's a good time for anybody who can to abandon the place. Just turn their backs on it and flee for their lives.
Once most of the people have starved to death, and hopefully seen fit to eat Mugabe and his gang in their passing, a more benign colonialism might well be imposed on the area. I propose that the Chinese be brought in this time!
See how the Shone like them, eh?!
Especially if another country at issue:
a) Has been accepting U.S. aid for 50 years to help prop up their withering economies or governments
b) Has been "protected" by the U.S. military for 50 years for FREE
c) See reasons #1 and #2.
But he would probably be acquitted if he argues that white people aren't human. He could refer back to his allegation that Australians are kangaroos to cite his true beliefs.
What do we tell all of those other countries to do, get rich, trade with the world, elect your own leaders??
Not to be mean spirited - but GOOD!!! I hope the US keeps out of it. Let a bunch of nations feel what its like not to have us around bailing their butts out. Let millions die for all I care. The rest need to rise up and overthrow and kill their race pimps. Tell Sally Struthers to take a friggin hike, and take the attitude of the soup nazi. "No help for you!"
True, and in our country we dictate, inter alia, that bestiality [particularly with sheep of either sex] is against the law, ewe fricking ewe fricker, ewe.
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WELL! No matchbook schools on self improvement for you!
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