Hands off Zimbabwe, Mugabe tells Blair
Posted: Monday, September 2, 2002Abstract: Guardian UK
The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, hijacked today's proceedings at the Johannesburg earth summit to denounce Tony Blair, telling the British leader: "Let me keep my Zimbabwe."
Mr Mugabe defended the seizures of white-owned farms.
To a round of applause from the conference hall, the Zimbabwean leader declared: "So Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe."
Mr Blair had already left the summit complex after delivering a short speech this morning, in which he called Africa a "scar on the conscience of the world", and urged leaders to find the political will to implement solutions to the continent's poverty and ill-health.
But speaking on the same platform this afternoon, Mr Mugabe told delegates: "We have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are we have won our independence."
Zimbabweans were "prepared to shed our blood" to protect the nation, he said.
Mr Mugabe has vowed to press ahead with the eviction of 2,900 of the 4,500 remaining white commercial farmers despite legal challenges at home and criticism in the west, particularly from the country's former colonial ruler, Britain.
Mr Mugabe said that white commercial farmers often owned several farms and would be allowed to keep at least one. "No farmer is being left without land," he said.
"We are threatening none."
Earlier, Mr Blair was also criticised by Namibia's president, Sam Nujoma, for contributing to southern Africa's problems.
In his address to the summit, Mr Nujoma said: "We here in southern Africa have one big problem, created by the British. The honourable Tony Blair is here, and he created the situation in Zimbabwe.
"The EU, who have imposed the sanctions against Zimbabwe, must raise them immediately otherwise it is useless to come here.
"The British colonial settlers in Zimbabwe today, they own 78% of the land in Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe is a tiny country.
"It has 14 million indigenous [people] who have no land." MOREPrinter friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Previous Page | Zimbabwe Watch | Historical Views | Home
NOTICE: All articles are the copyright property of the writers. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., section 107, some material on this site is provided without permission from the copyright owner, only for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of federal copyright laws. Visit: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more details. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
