Non-aligned nations back Mugabe's white land grab

The non-aligned nations summit today backed Robert Mugabe’s white land grab and urged the lifting of sanctions.

The Zimbabwe president used the summit in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, to attack Britain and the US.

He said tenets of international peace were “being desecrated by the day” while the US government grows unchallenged as the world’s main superpower, with its ally Britain becoming a “born-again colonialist.”

“Other Western countries have turned themselves into ferocious hunting bulldogs, raring to go as they sniff for more of our blood, Third World blood,” Mugabe said. “We, their hunted game, are for slaughter.”

Mugabe also questioned the legitimacy of the US presidential election that brought Bush to power.

He criticised Bush for rejecting Zimbabwe’s election results in March 2002 that gave the long-time African leader an additional six years in office, and referred to the month long recount in Florida that put Bush in the White House ahead of Al Gore.

“Is it not ironical that Mr Bush, who was not elected, should deny my legitimacy, the legitimacy of President Mugabe, established by many observer groups from Africa and the Third World?” Mugabe said.

“Who, in these circumstances, should the world impose sanctions on, Robert Mugabe or George Bush?”

Mugabe spoke at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of 116 mostly developing countries whose conference has been dominated by concerns over Washington’s confrontations with Iraq and North Korea.

The summit’s closing declaration expressed support for Zimbabwe’s seizure of white-owned farms and giving them to blacks who support Mugabe, calling on “the international community to give full support to these efforts.”

The declaration also urged the lifting of sanctions imposed by the United States, Britain, the European Union, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia and called for international aid to be resumed to the country.