Nujoma attacks British premier over Zim
Posted: Tuesday, September 3, 2002

From Innocent Gore in JOHANNESBURG

NAMIBIAN President Sam Nujoma yesterday attacked British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair for creating problems in Zimbabwe to protect the interests of white settlers.

Departing from a prepared speech in the plenary session of the Heads of State and Government attending the Earth Summit here, Cde Nujoma also attacked developed countries for the slave trade and discriminating against Africans.

But Mr Blair refused to respond to the attacks by Cde Nujoma saying he would do so at another forum.

"Here in Southern we have a problem created by the British government of Tony Blair who is here. They created the situation in Zimbabwe and campaigned successfully to the Europeans Union to impose sanctions against Zimbabwe.

"British colonialists today own 70 percent of land in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is a tiny country and has 14 million indigenous people who have no land. The whole land is occupied by British settlers," charged President Nujoma.

President Nujoma said the World Summit on Sustainable Development should make money available for land reform in Zimbabwe and asked the EU to immediately lift the so-called smart sanctions against the country, "otherwise it is useless to come here and talk lies".

The Namibian leader, whose speech was interrupted by applause from mainly heads of State from developing countries, said it was pointless to talk of equality of all human beings when Africans were enslaved and were still being discriminated upon in North America and Europe.

"We the African people suffered more than any other nation in the world through the slave trade. They are talking about equality of human beings but what’s equality of humanity when the Africans who were taken as slaves are the underdogs of this world?" he said.

Cde Nujoma said there was need for developed countries to make available funds for research to find a cure for Aids, reduce the debts for poor countries and end poverty.

He said there should be political will to reduce the gap between the rich and poor countries.

Mr Blair, who was the second speaker after Cde Nujoma, did not respond to the attacks, but instead spoke of his "passion for Africa" and the need for the developed world to open up their markets to products from the poor countries.

He challenged the summit to set a clear direction for the future. MORE 

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