War of Words at Earth Summit Betweeen Blair, Mugabe, Nujoma
"Opposition by Blair is artificial and a complete interference in our sovereignty," he declared before the assembled heads of state and government, receiving enthusiastic applause several times from a number of the delegations, AFP reported. "We fought for the land and fought for our sovereignty and we are prepared to shed our blood for their sustenance and maintenance of that."
Earlier Monday, Mugabe walked out of the summit when it was Blair's turn to address the leaders gathered here for the last three days of deliberations on alleviating extreme poverty and protecting the environment.
And Namibia's President Sam Nujoma, in his speech to the leaders, called for an end to sanctions against Zimbabwe and accused the West, notably former colonial ruler Britain, of mounting a campaign against the Southern African state.
Blair refused to accept Nujoma's criticism.
"When leaders like Sam Nujoma defend the utterly indefensible, behind a cloak of colonialism, it is a minority view," he told reporters while visiting the decaying township of Alexandra, north of Johannesburg.
Blair said Mugabe had done "enormous damage to the people" of Zimbabwe by depriving them of their rights and ruining the economy while hiding behind the "scapegoat of colonialism".
He said most African leaders approved of Britain's policies on Africa and accepted that London meant well, as evidenced by the amount of aid his government gave to Africa.
"First of all the president of Namibia said nothing new. He has said this many, many times before. It does not make any sense," he said.
"The vast majority freely approve what we are doing in Africa.
Britain does not need to be reminded of the importance of Africa. Britain always gives Africa major assistance in the fight against poverty."
Britain has been at the forefront of EU and Commonwealth sanctions -- including a travel ban on dozens of key officials -- aimed at isolating Mugabe's government.
Mugabe is under fire in the West for his seizure of White farmers' land for blacks when six million people -- about half the population -- are facing the threat of starvation.
His land policy, which recently saw more than 300 White farmers arrested for refusing to leave their land, is seen as having hurt agriculture and contributed to the food crisis.
But Mugabe said ownership must rest primarily with the indigenous Black majority who lost their rights during colonial pillage and not with the "obdurate and internationally well connected" White farmers supported by the Blair government.
"We shall not deprive the White farmers of land.
They will have at least one farm but they want more -- 15, 20 and even 35 farms. No farmer is being left without land," he added. Mugabe slammed Western countries for reducing "the rest of mankind to collective underdogs, chattels of a rich, the willful few in the north who beat, batter and bully us under the dirty cover of democracy, rule of law and good governance."
The world was "much worse and much more dangerous" 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro due to "bad global governance, lack of real political will by the north and a total absence of a just rule of law in international affairs," he said.
"We reject the manipulative and intimidatory countries and regional blocs aimed at subordinating our sovereignty with false concepts of the rule of law, democracy and good governance," he added.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard meanwhile said that Australia too would act soon on imposing "targeted sanctions" against Zimbabwe over its treatment of political opponents and White farmers.
"I would expect very soon that we would be looking at the imposition of different forms of sanctions" against Harare, said Howard, who chairs a Commonwealth committee on the situation in Zimbabwe.