Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe directed a withering tirade at Britain and the United States on Tuesday, accusing Tony Blair of seeking to impose ”neo-colonialist rule” over Harare.
Mugabe, addressing the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of 116 countries, criticised Washington’s threats to wage war on Iraq and said the West was unfairly depriving poorer nations of the right to develop nuclear weapons.
”The United States, awakened to the implications of being the 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 told the summit.
British prime minister Blair, who has been among Mugabe’s strongest critics over alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, was accused of ”irrational” behaviour towards the former British colony.
”He desires and is determined to undermine the sovereignty of my country and introduce neo-colonialist rule,” Mugabe said. The Zimbabwe leader, who was recently vilified as a ”monster” by the British tabloid press, added that the United States had no right to order Iraq to disarm.
”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 has received a major boost from NAM with the summit of mainly developing nations set to call for the lifting of sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Sanctions were imposed by the United States, European Union, Australia and other nations following violence in the run-up to Mugabe’s re-election a year ago.
Zimbabwe was also suspended from the Commonwealth, a 54-nation grouping of former British colonies, after its observers delivered an adverse report on the March 2002 poll.
NAM was also due to urge international support for Mugabe’s controversial land-reform policies, under which thousands of white Zimbabweans have been driven from their farms, in a resolution later on Tuesday. – Sapa-AFP