Posted on 06/02/2008 4:33:45 PM PDT by chessplayer
Western leaders expressed outrage today as Robert Mugabe flew into Rome in defiance of an EU travel ban to attend a United Nations world food summit while millions of people are starving under his brutal rule in Zimbabwe.
Mr Mugabe is staying at the five-star Ambasciatori Palace Hotel on the Via Veneto, the elegant street which provided the backdrop for Federico Fellini's film La Dolce Vita. A deluxe suite at the hotel costs 900 euros a night. The Art Deco hotel, built in 1905 and refurbished in the 1990s, offers “gourmet buffets” and a “refined catering service”.
Travel ban loophole
— Italy can claim that its hands were tied over allowing Mr Mugabe to visit Rome. Under the terms of the Food and Agriculture Headquarters Agreement signed by Italy in 1950, it appears that, as host to the UN organisation, Rome is obliged to allow official representatives to attend. Mr Mugabe is subject to an EU travel ban but that too has a get-out clause for outlawed individuals, enabling them to attend international conferences.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Mugabe is a pig.
wtf good is the UN, really? to make up rules for everybody except the ones that need them?
In many ways, it is just fine for Mugabe and Ahmadinejad to be in Rome. All the more reason for them to be on the receiving end of some Dam’nation from the Pope.
I would not like to be on the receiving end of this Pope’s wrath: he does not strike me as the sort of man to pull any punches, and he clearly means what he says and says what he means.
A man for his time.
The EU is a paper wolf. I mean a paper dog.
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