ROME — Western leaders attacked Zimbabwe’s president for participating in this week’s U.N. summit on the global food crisis while his people are going hungry.
“Robert Mugabe turning up to a conference dealing with food security or food issues is, in my view, frankly, obscene,” Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters in Perth.
The three-day summit, hosted by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, begins today.
Mugabe is blamed for the economic collapse of a country once considered a regional breadbasket. Zimbabweans increasingly are unable to afford food and other essentials with agriculture paralyzed by land reform and the world’s highest rate of inflation.
“President Mugabe is personally responsible for the absurdly high food prices and grinding poverty in Zimbabwe,” Bert Koenders, the Dutch minister for overseas development, said in a statement.
His ministry said Dutch delegates would take part in the conference, despite their objection to Mugabe’s attendance.
“We will not allow the millions of people who can’t afford a proper meal to be held hostage by President Mugabe,” Koenders said. “We will ignore him and do all we can to tackle the food crisis with concrete measures.”
Mugabe was staying at a posh Rome hotel on Via Veneto a day before the start of the summit. He did not respond to reporters’ shouted questions as he left the hotel Monday afternoon.
Mugabe’s visit comes amid accusations of a government crackdown on the opposition in the weeks before a June 27 presidential runoff.
On Monday, Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper reported the arrests of at least 70 opposition supporters accused of political violence.
Opposition leaders say more than 50 supporters have been killed.
