The UN finds a hunger expert with real expertise
The United States has expressed “amazement” at a United Nations invitation to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to address a hunger conference in Rome on Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “I find it amazing they’ve invited Mr Mugabe to speak at the 60th anniversary, who in a way has done so much to hurt the hungry, and who has absolutely turned his back on the poor,” said Tony Hall, US ambassador to the UN food agencies in Rome.
“I find it amazing. What can he possibly say to us at the conference, when he has done so much to hurt his own people? Food has been used as a weapon against his own people,” Hall said late on Friday. Mugabe, despite a travel ban imposed by the European Union, confirmed his attendance with the organisers on Friday afternoon, an FAO spokesperson said. He is expected to travel to Rome on Sunday.
Nine heads of state, including those from Italy, Brazil, Venezuela, Botswana and Ecuador, will take part in Monday’s ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the Rome-based UN food agency. The FAO will use the occasion to draw attention to the plight of the world’s hungry. Hall, a former Democrat Congressman from Ohio, said he will attend the conference on Monday and listen to Mugabe’s speech.
Ambassador Hall: a boycott would be in better taste. Is this the same UN inviting thug and murderer Mugabe that John Bolton was too mean for?
October 18th, 2005 at 4:22 pm
It was so much more pleasant when it was Rhodesia!
October 18th, 2005 at 9:43 pm
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! This hurts my head. One good thing is that security may not be that tight. Maybe someone with a grude and some skill wants an opportunity to make the world a better place?
October 19th, 2005 at 11:30 pm
With the US and the USSR fighting inside the UN as well as outside, who in their right mind could figure that it would last as an institution? We need to move it to Saudi Arabia, where the culture clash would finish it.