US congress irritated by Mugabe’s remarks at Rome food conference

By Tichaona Sibanda
20 October 2005

The United States Congress is putting pressure on UN secretary general Koffi Annan to explain why the world body continues to give Robert Mugabe a platform, which he always uses to attack George W.Bush and Tony Blair.

Mugabe’s attack on the United States President and British Prime Minister during a Food and Agriculture Organisation conference in Rome, Italy has ruffled some feathers in Congress who have taken up the issue with Annan.

Reports from the US indicate that Annan has so far refused to comment on the issue. Mugabe used the FAO platform to compare Bush and Blair to Hitler and Mussolini. During his speech Mugabe, described as one of the world’s most repressive dictators, said Bush and Blair were ‘international terrorists.’

Instead of using the platform to seek food aid for the starving millions he has created in Zimbabwe, Mugabe decided to grandstand and display his usual, predictable and now boring verbal attacks.

Ralph Black, a Zimbabwe activist in Dallas, Texas said Mugabe’s utterances did more damage to Annan than himself. Black said the Rome speech was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back as the Black Caucus of the US Congress threw in the towel and admitted that Mugabe was difficult to work with.