The Daily News (Harare)
Staff Reporter
17 June 2002
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe became the centre of global attention at the World Food Summit in Rome, but for all the wrong reasons. According to the South African newspaper, Business Day, Mugabe grabbed the limelight at the meeting on Monday as he became the target of a torrent of blistering criticism by international leaders for his objectionable governance and land policies.
United States Agency for International Development head, Andrew Natsios, opened the floodgates of biting censure against Mugabe by complaining that he was appalled by the Zimbabwean ruler's presence at the summit.
"I am uncomfortable when any head of state that is tyrannical and predatory comes to a conference like this," he said. Mugabe came under fire for his government's food distribution patterns in which he is accused of feeding his supporters only, while starving those perceived to be members of the opposition. Other critics joined in the attack against him, putting him at the centre of the international diplomatic radar.
Glenys Kinnock, a member of the European parliament and a staunch critic of the Zimbabwean leader, told the European Union that Mugabe should not be allowed to posture on international stages while he starved his own people. "Mugabe is using these United Nations meetings to parade himself in Europe in defiance of our ban, while people in his country suffer because of his policies," she said.
However, Mugabe insisted: "Zimbabwean land must rightly belong to Zimbabweans."
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