JOHANNESBURG,
Sept 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A war of words broke out at
the UN Earth Summit in Johannesburg Monday, September 02, 2002, between
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
over Zimbabwe's land reforms.
Mugabe
called on the world's leaders at the summit to adopt a program that
would allow Africans to enjoy sustainable development "not as
puppets, not as beggars but as sovereign people" and told Blair to
"keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe," reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Opposition
by Blair is artificial and a complete interference in our
sovereignty," he declared before the assembled heads of state and
government, receiving enthusiastic applause several times from many
delegations.
"We
fought for the land and fought for our sovereignty and we are prepared
to shed our blood for their sustenance and maintenance of that."
Earlier
Monday, Mugabe walked out of the summit when it was Blair's turn to
address the leaders gathered for the last three days of deliberations on
alleviating extreme poverty and protecting the environment.
Mugabe
is under fire in the West for his seizure of white farmers' land for
blacks when six million people - about half the population - are facing
the threat of starvation.
His
land policy, more than 300 white farmers arrested for refusing to leave
their land, is seen as having hurt agriculture and contributed to the
food crisis.
However,
Mugabe said ownership must rest primarily with the indigenous black
majority, who lost their rights during colonial pillage and not with the
"obdurate and internationally well connected" white farmers
supported by the Blair government.
"We
shall not deprive the white farmers of land. They will have at least one
farm but they want more - 15, 20 and even 35 farms. No farmer is being
left without land," he added.
Mugabe
criticized Western countries for reducing "the rest of mankind to
collective underdogs, chattels of a rich, the willful few in the North
who beat, batter and bully us under the dirty cover of democracy, rule
of law and good governance."
The
world was "much worse and much more dangerous" 10 years after
the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro due to "bad global
governance, lack of real political will by the north and a total absence
of a just rule of law in international affairs," he said.
"We
reject the manipulative and intimidatory countries and regional blocs
aimed at subordinating our sovereignty with false concepts of the rule
of law, democracy and good governance," he added.
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Blair
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For
his part, Namibia's President Sam Nujoma, in his speech to the leaders,
called for ending sanctions against Zimbabwe and accused the West,
notably former colonial ruler Britain, of mounting a campaign against
the southern African state.
Blair,
however, refused to accept Nujoma's criticism.
"When
leaders like Sam Nujoma defend the utterly indefensible, behind a cloak
of colonialism, it is a minority view," he told reporters while
visiting the decaying township of Alexandra, north of Johannesburg.
Blair
said Mugabe did "enormous damage to the people" of Zimbabwe by
depriving them of their rights and ruining the economy while hiding
behind the "scapegoat of colonialism".
The
British Premier claimed that most African leaders approved of Britain's
policies on Africa and accepted that London meant well, as evidenced by
the amount of aid his government gave to Africa.
"First
of all the President of Namibia said nothing new. He has said this many,
many times before. It does not make any sense," he said.
"The
vast majority freely approve what we are doing in Africa. Britain does
not need to be reminded of the importance of Africa. Britain always
gives Africa major assistance in the fight against poverty."
Britain
has been at the forefront of EU and Commonwealth sanctions aimed at
isolating Mugabe's government, including a travel ban on dozens of key
officials.
Australian
Prime Minister John Howard, meanwhile, said that Australia too would act
soon on imposing "targeted sanctions" against Zimbabwe over
its treatment of political opponents and white farmers.
"I
would expect very soon that we would be looking at the imposition of
different forms of sanctions" against Harare, said Howard, who
chairs a Commonwealth committee on the situation in Zimbabwe.
Speaking
on radio, Howard said Mugabe had been reelected fraudulently and had
since rejected every international attempt to help resolve the political
and economic crisis in his country.
