ROBERT Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, yesterday blamed Britain for the collapse of his country's economy.
In a speech to a UN summit on the global food crisis, he claimed the UK and its allies had colluded to enforce trade sanctions that had wrecked his land reforms, widely blamed for bringing starvation to his country.
He defended his policy of seizi
ng land from white farmers, saying he is undoing a legacy left by Zimbabwe's former colonial "masters".
And he contended the land reform had been "warmly welcomed by the vast majority of our people."
"It has, however, and regrettably so, elicited wrath from our former colonial masters," Mr Mugabe said.
"In retaliation ... the United Kingdom has mobilised her friends and allies in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand to impose illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe," he added.
The sanctions, he claimed, aim to "cripple Zimbabwe's economy and thereby effect illegal regime change in our country."
Mr Mugabe's land-reform policies are blamed for turning a country once considered a regional "bread basket" into one suffering hunger and economic collapse.
However, his participation in the summit continued to cause controversy yesterday, as his presence was branded as "obscene" by both Douglas Alexander, the UK international development secretary, and Stephen Smith, Australia's foreign minister. Bert Koenders, the Dutch minister for overseas development, pledged to "ignore" Mr Mugabe during the summit.
Tom Casey, the US State Department spokesman, said Mr Mugabe's presence could only serve as "an example of what not to do in terms of managing agricultural and food policy."
He told reporters that Mr Mugabe's "misrule" has turned Zimbabwe into a "tragic" place where people do not have enough food.
As the summit continued to focus on the issue of solving the world food shortage, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations head warned delegates that the world needs to produce 50 per cent more food by 2030 to meet increasing demand.
The secretary-general said countries must minimise export restrictions and import tariffs during the crisis and quickly resolve world-trade talks.
"The world needs to produce more food," Mr Ban told the Rome conference. "Food production needs to rise by 50 per cent by the year 2030 to meet rising demand."
However, claims that the rise of biofuels were contributing to the food crisis by replacing food crops were rebuffed yesterday.
Leaders of US, Canadian and European industries appealed to world leaders and to Jacques Diouf, who heads the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, which is hosting the conference, to avoid any hasty condemnations or actions that would endanger the world embracing alternative fuels.
"It would be highly precipitous ... for the United Nations or other international bodies to single out biofuels as the major cause for escalating food prices and take actions that might lead to even higher food prices," the industry leaders said in a letter.
Lunch leaves bitter taste at hunger talksWORLD leaders yesterday enjoyed a three-course lunch as they discussed solving the problem of more than 850 million starving people.
At the three-day talks on the global food crisis at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), leaders and delegates were served starters of sweetcorn and mozzarella vol au vents as well as pâté of pumpkin and crevettes. To follow there was a choice of cutlets of veal with cherry tomatoes and basil or snails a la romaine. Desert was a fruit salad with vanilla ice-cream.
White wine was served with the lunch, which took place on the top floor of the FAO's headquarters.
Topic on the agenda were rising food prices and the best way to tackle the problem which has seen several countries hit by rioting.
