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Posted on 09/02/2002 3:56:57 PM PDT by What Is Ain't
Tony Blair walked into a humiliating ambush at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg today as African leaders angrily accused him of acting like a modern day colonialist.
The Prime Minister's attempt to take a leading role in third world development, an aim he descibred as his "passion", was severely marred by a bad tempered attack from President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and President Sam Nujoma of Namibia.
Hurling a tirade of abuse at Mr Blair, Mr Mugabe, in his keynote speech to the summit, threatened to shed blood if that was what it took to continue his controversial land reforms, under which hundreds of white farmers have been evicted from their land.
Mr Mugabe said: "Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe." His remarks met with loud applause from other world leaders, compounding the embarrassment for Mr Blair who had told delegates of his pride in the work done by Britain in Africa only a few hours earlier.
Mr Mugabe claimed that the black majority of Zimbabwe, "the primary stakeholders" had been pitted against "an obdurate and internationally well connected racial minority largely of British descent...colonial farmers now being supported and sustained by the Blair Government."
Mr Mugabe said no white farmer would be left without land, and his policy was to allow them one farm each. "But 15, 20, 25 farms one person, these are real figures."
Mocking Mr Blair's call for good governance in Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe said the "imperialist interest" of Britain "does not represent good governance". "Our cause is that land comes first before all else."
Mr Mugabe shrugged off EU sanctions and said he did not want to be part of Europe anyway.
"We are Africans, we are not Englishmen, we are not Europeans. We are threatening no one and therefore the operations by Mr Blair are artificial, completely uncalled for and an interference in our domestic affairs.
"But we say this - we have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty. Small as we are we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood in sustenance and maintenance and protection of that independence."
It was the second attack of the day for Mr Blair. Moments before the Prime Minister rose to deliver his keynote speech, Mr Nujoma accused him of causing misery in Zimbabwe with the imposition of sanctions and said his visit to the summit was useless whilst he continued to support such action.
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 sanctions against Zimbabwe must raise them immediately otherwise it is useless to come here."
Mr Nujoma attacked British colonialism, and made clear that he believed the action of Mr Mugabe in evicting hundreds of white farmers from their land was justified. He said: "The British colonial settlers in Zimbabwe today own 78% of the land of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is a tiny country.
"It has 14 million indigenous people who have no land. We the African people have suffered more than any other nation in the world with the slave trade coming from Liverpool in the UK to West Africa, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and even Angola."
The embarrassment for Mr Blair was again compounded by the loud applause which greeted Mr Nujoma's remarks from international delegates in the hall. The Prime Minister ploughed on with his pre-prepared text in spite of the attack, saying he was proud of what Britain had done to help Africa: "Proud of our record on debt relief...proud of our record on aid and development...proud that we will meet, even exceed our Kyoto targets."
Appealing for wealthy nations to do more, Mr Blair said the key characteristic of today's world was its interdependence. "Your problem becomes my problem. One country's war becomes another country's asylum seekers. One country's pollution becomes another country's floods."
Later Mr Blair rejected Mr Nujoma's criticisms saying: "What the president said is what he has always said. It doesn't make it any more sensible."
Mr Blair's official spokesman said the criticism of African leaders "was greeted with a shrug not by shock horror." The spokesman said: "We don't hide the fact that there were differences because of historical sensitivities.
Defending the sanctions, he said: "Leaders in this part of the world believe that private dialogue works better. We believe that private dialogue has been tried and has not worked and that we have to use public pressure."
But the strength of the criticism, and the fact that it was so loudly applauded took many at the summit by surprise. Mr Blair later changed his plans and left the summit early. He left a dinner for 106 world leaders including Mr Mugabe an hour before it was due to end. His aide did not give a reason for the hastily arranged departure.
Aid agencies were also critical of Mr Blair's efforts. Greenpeace said in a statement: "It's almost a tradition that once a year Blair treats us to a lecture on the perils of global warming. We needed to hear about targets, timetables and cash - instead we got the usual hand-wringing.
"He says we need genuine political leadership, but should have provided it himself by calling for a meaningful global target for renewable energy. Once again, he failed."
The 10-day conference, which started a week ago, aims to agree on a plan to turn promises made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio into reality. However, more than a week of negotiations on an action plan have been excruciating.
Overnight, negotiators reached compromises on trade and sanitation. There is a commitment to halve the 2 billion people living without sanitation by 2015 and a repeat of commitments to hold negotiations with a view to phasing out agriculture and other trade-distorting subsidies.
Countries are also urged to reform subsidies that are environmentally harmful, such as those for the fishing industry that contribute to overcapacity.
The last outstanding trade issue was resolved late on Sunday when negotiators agreed to delete language giving the WTO precedence over multilateral environment agreements.
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Not that I want to take up for British colonialism but the British did manage to civilize the natives. Now they are going in the opposite direction.
Yes. Each white farmer will be placed under six feet of prime Zimbabwe land.
"Flush toilets will be phased out worldwide by 2006, rather than 2004 as demanded by the environmental activists."
Apparently not.
Sounds like something Israel could say, and then 'just do it'!
And if the people don't rise up now to throw out a thug like Mugabe, they all deserve to starve. We shouldn't send one penny of aid to prop up this dictator.
It is our money, and we should only give it to our friends.
Gets my vote!
Thats some threat, Mugabe has already spilled blood.
Johannesburg (CNSNews.com) - In what some see as a sign that the Earth summit is literally going down the drain, an environmentalist at the Earth summit here has lamented the introduction of the flush toilet.
A female panelist from India complained that the flush toilet encourages excessive water consumption around the world and is not ecologically friendly.
The remark prompted an associate of Smith, CEI's Chris Horner, to ponder what alternative the woman would suggest. "Presumably the preferred solution to human waste problems is now abstinence," Horner quipped.
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