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Australia pushing for Mugabe criminal trial
AUSTRALIA is pressing the world's most powerful nations to put Zimbabwe's brutal dictator Robert Mugabe on trial in the International Criminal Court.Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer stepped up his attack on the Mugabe regime for crimes against its own people. "The thing about President Mugabe is he's not a threat to anyone else . . . but he is a terrible threat to his own people," he said. The Australian Government was pushing the UN Security Council to refer Mr Mugabe and his henchmen to the global court. Zimbabwe is not a signatory of the court so can only be prosecuted by a Security Council resolution. The UN's peak body is considering a damning report from the Special Representative on Zimbabwe. Advertisement: "President Mugabe has simply destroyed the economy of the country," Mr Downer said. "Half the country is suffering from a lack of sufficient nutrition that he has to have food aid for a country that was once a great agricultural nation." Mr Mugabe made a speech this week at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome. Mr Downer said the speech was "offensive" and "disgraceful". Australian officials were instructed to walk out of the conference venue when the Zimbabwean strongman got to the podium. They were the only ones to do so. "This is a country that used to be the breadbasket - the food bowl of Africa - a major exporter of food and under his regime he has simply decimated agriculture," Mr Downer said. "And they are begging now for food." Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian 2005-10-18 |
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