AUSTRALIA was the only country whose representative to a UN meeting boycotted a "disgraceful" speech by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
Mr Mugabe used the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) anniversary meeting in Rome overnight to launch a withering denunciation of US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Zimbabwe President described them as "the two unholy men of our millennium", comparing them with Hitler and Mussolini.
Mr Downer today said Australia's representative at the meeting had walked out prior to the speech. "I thought his speech was absolutely disgraceful," the Foreign Minister said on ABC radio. "Australia, I am proud to say, was the only country whose representative walked out before President Mugabe's speech.
"We boycotted his speech. I thought it was quite inappropriate for him to make a speech like that, and ironical and inappropriate for him to turn up at the meeting at all."
Mr Downer said it would have been difficult not to invite Mr Mugabe to the FAO anniversary as Zimbabwe was a member of the United Nations. However, he said Mr Mugabe had made "an enormous mistake" in accepting the invitation and then making a political speech. "But he has also highlighted the simple point about Zimbabwe – that this is a country that used to be the ... food bowl of Africa, a major exporter of food, and under his regime he has simply decimated agriculture and they are begging now for food from the international community," Mr Downer said.
Mr Downer said Mr Mugabe had destroyed the economy of Zimbabwe, and half the country was now suffering from a lack of sufficient nutrition. |