Can you bloody believe it?

He's on about New Zealand now. Taken from the TVNZ site.

Mugabe criticises NZ in summit speech
Jun 4, 2008 6:47 AM

The government has boycotted a speech given by Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe at the Global Food Summit in Rome. The speech, ostensibly meant to be on agriculture, blamed New Zealand and others for making Zimbabwe suffer. But the NZ government and others refused to listen to his tirade.

Mugabe arrived at the food summit with the air of a proud and popular leader - the fact that his homeland, Zimbabwe, is in crisis seemingly everyone else's fault.

"In retaliation for the measures we took to empower the black majority, the United Kingdom has mobilised friends and allies in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand to impose illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe." Mugabe asserted in his address to the summit.

This was not what New Zealand's Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton travelled to Rome to hear. So he, and others, boycotted the speech.

"If it wasn't so tragic, it'd be laughable." Anderton said.

"He took over a country that was renowned as the breadbasket of Africa and now...he's got millions of people virtually starving".

Prime Minister Helen Clark says Mugabe is a tyrant and that New Zealand does not even have any economic sanctions against Zimbabwe.

"I think it's totally understandable that people would walk out rather than be subjected to a tirade against countries like our own." Clark said.

Zimbabwe now survives almost solely on food aid. Forty-seven percent of its people are malnourished, and the population's life expectancy sits at an abysmal 37 years. But to Mugabe, even the aid agencies are to blame - Western charities bring in relief only to discredit him and force him out of power.

He says all the initiatives are intended to cripple Zimbabwe's economy.

But even countries enjoying more stability than Mugabe's Zimbabwe are facing the possibility of mass famine. In the past year, the global cost of grain has doubled. Dairy and rice prices are up by around 50%. The commodity increases are why the UN has organised this summit.

"Only by acting together in partnership can we overcome this crisis today and for tomorrow." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon warned at the summit. "Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when it is man-made. It breeds anger, social disintegration, ill-health and economic decline."

The worldwide effect is already visible - commodity prices bringing down a govt in Haiti, and causing food riots in a string of countries.

Delegates now hope to focus on how to feed the hungry, not on why Mugabe has come to Rome.

Anderton speaks to the conference on Thursday and will be calling for a co-ordinated approach to the issue from the UN.

He says New Zealand is willing to offer its services to help to solve the world's food crisis as he believed the country is considered the best in the world when it came to agriculture.

Anderton said New Zealand knows what infrastructure and scientific research is needed.

New Zealand is committing $7 million for the organisation's emergency food programme.