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Applause as dictator blames Britain and US for Zimbabwe
collapse
By Hilary Clarke in Rome
(Filed: 18/10/2005)
President Mugabe drew applause at a United Nations
conference on hunger yesterday when he said Britain and
the United States were to blame for his country's
economic collapse.
Mr.
Mugabe called Tony Blair and George W Bush "the unholy
alliance of the millennium".
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Mr. Mugabe makes his point at the
World Food Day |
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He then
compared the two world leaders to Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini and accused them of interfering in the
domestic affairs of countries such as his own.
Mr.
Mugabe made his attack after a speech in which he patted
himself on the back for the "long overdue" land reforms
started five years ago in which land was forcibly taken
from white farmers.
The
reforms sent the economy, which once provided food for
the region, into a tail-spin, leaving it dependent on
international aid for survival.The US alone has donated
almost $300 million (£166 million) in food aid to
Zimbabwe since 2002.
Mr.
Mugabe said that "if charity comes our way we will use
it"
but that "we don't need America and we don't need
Britain".
Four
million Zimbabweans, a third of the population, now need
rations from the World Food Programme to stay alive.
One
delegate who did not clap Mr. Mugabe was the American
ambassador to the food agencies in Rome, Tony Hall. |