NOT FOR the first time, controversial Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe yesterday used a United Nations Rome forum to attack western critics and to defend land reform policies which have been blamed for plunging his people into starvation.
Although he is normally banned from visiting EU countries, Mr Mugabe is allowed to visit the EU under exceptional circumstances such as attending this week's UN World Food Security Summit in Rome.
At last year's summit, he launched a strong attack on Britain, the former colonial power in his country. Yesterday, he appeared to point the finger at a whole range of unnamed western powers, implying it was their "ruinous" interventions rather than his government's policies which had led to economic meltdown and widespread starvation in Zimbabwe. He said: "We in Zimbabwe have come to realise that besides the adverse nature and ruinous agricultural policies of powerful nations, there is also the challenge of the punitive policies of certain countries whose interests stand opposed to our quest for the equity and justice of our land reforms . . . We face very hostile interventions by these states which have imposed unilateral sanctions on us. These have had a negative impact on our farmers who, according to our neo-colonialist enemies, must fail so as to damn the land reforms we have undertaken."
Mr Mugabe concluded his speech with a demand that western countries "remove their illegal and inhuman sanctions on my country and its people".
While one controversial summit guest was launching his now habitual Rome tirade, another colourful leader attending the summit, Libyan president Col Muammar Gadafy, chose a rather different method to make himself heard. He invited 200 women, aged 18-35, to a "happening" in a luxurious Rome villa. Initially, the women assembled in a downtown Rome hotel, where they were screened by metal detectors and then examined by the colonel's aides who rejected anyone wearing provocative clothing such as miniskirts. The ladies, who were paid €50 for the night, were then bussed out to the villa.
If his guests had been expecting a night of lavish entertainment, they were to be disappointed. After making them wait for an hour, Col Gadafy presented them with a copy of the Koran and offered to pay for them to visit Mecca if they opted to convert to the Islamic faith.
Earlier, in an address to the summit, Col Gadafy lashed out against the "neo-colonialist" land-grabbing policies of western powers and multinationals in Africa .
Yesterday's second day of the three-day summit also heard an intervention by Irish Minister for Food and Horticulture, Trevor Sargent, who called for an end to the "business as usual" approach to fighting world hunger. Mr Sargent emphasised the need for long-term solutions, arguing "greater resources must be directed towards smallholder farmers and in particular towards women farmers". Ireland, he said, views agricultural production and nutrition as development aid priorities.