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Robert Mugabe speaks about UK and US.
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00:06Your Excellency, President of the 62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly,
00:19Mr. Karim, Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,
00:25Your Excellency, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
00:35Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.
00:40Mr. President, allow me to congratulate you on your election to preside over this august Assembly.
00:49We are confident that through your stewardship issues on this 62nd Session agenda
00:59will be dealt with in a balanced manner and to the satisfaction of all.
01:05Let me also pay tribute to your predecessor, Madam Haya Rashid al-Khalifa,
01:13who steered the work of the 61st Session in a very competent and impartial manner.
01:22Her ability to identify the crucial issues facing the world today
01:28will be remembered as the hallmark of her presidency.
01:34Mr. President, we extend our hearty welcome to the new Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
01:43who has taken up this challenging job requiring dynamism in confronting the global challenges of the 21st century.
01:54Balancing global interests and steering the United Nations in a direction that gives hope to the multitudes of the poor,
02:03the sick, the hungry and the marginalized is indeed a mammoth task.
02:10We would like to assure him that Zimbabwe will continue to support an open, transparent
02:17and all-inclusive multilateral approach in dealing with these global challenges.
02:24Mr. President, climate change is one of the most pressing global issues of our time.
02:32Its negative impact is greatest in developing countries, particularly those on the African continent.
02:40We believe that if the international community is going to seriously address the challenges of climate change,
02:49then we need to get our priorities right.
02:53In Zimbabwe, the effects of climate change have become more evident in the past decade,
03:00as we have witnessed alongside our neighbors increased and recurrent droughts,
03:06as well as occasional floods, leading to enormous humanitarian challenges.
03:15Mr. President, we are for a United Nations that recognizes the equality of sovereign nations and peoples,
03:23whether big or small.
03:25We are averse to a body in which they economically and militarily powerful behave like bullies,
03:35trampling on the rights of the weak and smaller states, as sadly happened in Iraq.
03:44In the light of these inauspicious developments,
03:49this organization must surely examine the essence of its authority
03:54and the extent of its power when challenged in this manner.
03:59such challenges to the authority of the United Nations and its Charter underpean our repeated call
04:08for the revitalization of the United Nations General Assembly,
04:13itself the most representative organ of the United Nations.
04:17The General Assembly should be more active in all areas, including those of peace and security.
04:24The encroachment of some United Nations organs upon the work of the General Assembly is of great concern to us.
04:33Thus, any process of revitalizing or strengthening of the General Assembly should necessarily avoid eroding the principle
04:44of the accountability of all principal and subsidiary organs to the General Assembly.
04:53Mr. President, once again, we reiterate our position that the Security Council, as presently constituted, is not democratic.
05:05In its present configuration, the Council has shown that it is not in a position to protect the weaker states
05:14who find themselves at loggerheads with a marauding superpower.
05:19Most importantly, justice demands that any Security Council reform redresses the fact that Africa is the only continent
05:31without a permanent seat and veto power in the Security Council.
05:37of the United Nations General Assembly.
05:39Africa's demands are known and enunciated in the Izulwini consensus.
05:47Mr. President, we further call for the United Nations system to refrain from interfering in matters that are clearly the
05:56domain of member states
05:58and are not a threat to international peace and security.
06:03Development at country level should continue to be country-led and not subject to the whims and caprices of powerful
06:13donor states.
06:14Mr. President, Zimbabwe won its independence on the 18th of April in 1980, after a protracted struggle,
06:26protracted war against British colonial imperialism, which denied its people human rights and democracy.
06:37That colonial system which suppressed and oppressed us enjoyed the support of many countries of the West,
06:45who were signatories to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
06:52Even after 1945, it would appear that the Berlin Conference of 1884, through which Africa was parceled
07:02to colonial European powers, remained stronger than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
07:10It is therefore clear that for the West, vested economic interests, racial and ethnocentric considerations
07:20proved stronger than their adherence to principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
07:28The West still negates our sovereignties by way of control of our resources,
07:35in the process making us mere chattels in our own lands, mere minders of its transnational interests.
07:43In my own country and other sister states in Southern Africa, the most visible form of this colonial control has
07:53been over land,
07:55despoiled from us at the onset of British colonialism.
08:00That control largely persists, although it stands firmly challenged in Zimbabwe,
08:07thereby triggering the current standoff between us and Britain, supported by her cousin states,
08:17most notably the United States and Australia.
08:21Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and now Mr. Brown's sense of human rights precludes our people's right to their God-given
08:31resources,
08:31which in their view must be controlled by their kith and kin.
08:36I am termed dictator.
08:39And yesterday you heard Mr. Bush here calling my government the Mugabe regime,
08:49because I have rejected this supremacist view and frustrated the neocolonialists in their endeavours
09:00to keep us as slaves in our own country.
09:04Mr. President, clearly the history of the struggle for our own national and people's rights
09:10is unknown to the President of the United States of America.
09:15He thinks the Declaration of Human Rights starts with his last term in office.
09:22He thinks he can introduce to us, who bore the brunt of the struggle for the freedoms of our peoples,
09:30the virtues of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
09:35What rank hypocrisy!
09:37Mr. President, I spent 11 precious years of my life in the jail of a white Englishman,
09:47whose freedom and wellbeing I assured and protected from the first day of Zimbabwe's independence.
09:58And that was Ian Smith.
10:01I lost a further 15 years fighting white injustice in my country.
10:07Ian Smith was responsible for the death of well over 50,000 of my people.
10:15I bear scars of his tyranny, which Britain and America condoned.
10:22I meet his victims every day, yet he walks free today.
10:28He farms freely, has a farm of over 500 hectares.
10:35He talks freely, associates freely, under our black government.
10:41We taught him democracy.
10:44We gave him back his humanity.
10:47He would have faced a different fate here and in Europe,
10:52if the 50,000 he killed had been Europeans.
10:58Africa has not called for a Nuremberg trial against the white world,
11:04which committed heinous crimes against its own humanity.
11:09It has not hunted perpetrators of this genocide, many of whom live to this day,
11:18nor has it got reparations from those who offended against it.
11:23Instead, it is Africa which is in the dock.
11:27It is Mugabe and not the British Prime Minister who is in the dock,
11:35facing trial from the same world that persecuted us for centuries.
11:42Let Mr. Bush read history correctly.
11:47Let him realize that both personally and in his representative capacity
11:52as the current President of the United States,
11:55he stands for this civilization which occupied, which colonized, which incarcerated, which killed.
12:04He has much to atone for and very little to lecture us on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
12:14His hands drip with innocent blood of many nationalities and today with the blood of the Iraqis.
12:22But he still kills. He kills in Iraq. He kills in Afghanistan.
12:28And this is supposed to be our master on human rights.
12:34He imprisons. He imprisons and tortures at Guantanamo.
12:39He imprisoned and tortures at Abu Ghraib.
12:44He has secret torture chambers in Europe.
12:47Yes, he imprisons even here in the United States,
12:51with his jails today carrying more blacks than his universities can ever enroll.
12:59He even suspends the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
13:06Take Guantanamo, for example.
13:10At that concentration camp, international law does not apply.
13:15The national laws of the people there do not apply.
13:19Laws of the United States of America do not apply.
13:23Only Bush's law applies.
13:27Can the international community accept being lectured by this man
13:32on the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
13:37Definitely not.
13:39Mr. President, we are alarmed that under his leadership basic rights of his own people
13:46and those of the rest of the world have summarily been rolled back.
13:52America is primarily responsible for rewriting core tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
13:59We seem all guilty for 9-11.
14:04Mr. Bush thinks he stands above all structures of governance, whether national or international.
14:13At home, he apparently does not need the Congress.
14:20He defies it.
14:22Abroad, he does not need the United Nations.
14:26He does not need international law and opinion.
14:30I'll go, he said, to Iraq with or without the United Nations.
14:37That is, with or without international law in defiance of it.
14:43This forum did not sanction Blair and Bush's misadventures in Iraq.
14:49Did we say yes to it?
14:52Did we say yes to the attack of Iraq?
14:56The two rode roughshored over the United Nations and international opinion.
15:02The pockets ofbs inistics in Iraq .
15:0211 Johannes and obvi-huhBLF nhl asked others to counsel well.
15:02Boyon, almighty Bush.
15:05Perhaps some might regard him as their God?
15:09No, he is not my God.
15:13I have but one God.
15:17He is in heaven.
15:21Pata Nosta
15:22Qui es in chelis
15:28Indeed, he wants us to pray him
15:30We say no to him
15:32And encourage him to get out of Iraq
15:36Indeed, he should mend his ways
15:38Before he clambers up the pulpit
15:42To deliver pieties of democracy
15:46Is he qualified to speak of democracy?
15:49Is he qualified to speak of human rights
15:53When he's shedding blood every day?
15:58Mr. President, the British and the Americans
16:01Have gone on a relentless campaign
16:03Of destabilizing and vilifying my country
16:07They have sponsored surrogate forces
16:09To challenge lawful authority in my country
16:12They seek regime change
16:15They seek regime change
16:18Not my people
16:20But they think they are entitled to change governments
16:28Placing themselves in the role of the Zimbabwean people
16:32In whose collective will democracy
16:35Places the right to define and change regimes
16:40And they want to talk of democracy
16:42When they are behaving that way
16:45Let these sinister governments be told here and now
16:49That Zimbabwe will not allow a regime change
16:53Authored by outsiders
16:56We do not interfere with their own systems
16:59In America and Britain
17:01Were they still elections as he did during his first election
17:06We do not interfere
17:08Mr. Bush and Mr. Brown have no role to play
17:13In our own national affairs
17:15They are outsiders and mischievous outsiders
17:18And should therefore keep out
17:21The colonial sun set a long time ago
17:25In Africa
17:27In 1980 in the case of Zimbabwe
17:31And hence Zimbabwe will never be a colony again
17:35Never ever
17:37We do not deserve sanctions
17:40We are Zimbabweans
17:41And we know how to deal with our own problems
17:44We have done so in the past
17:47Well before Bush and Brown were known politically
17:51We have our own regional and continental organizations and communities
17:56In that vein I wish to express my country's gratitude
18:01To President Tawwambeki of South Africa
18:04Who on behalf of SADIC
18:07The Southern African Development Community
18:09Successfully facilitated the dialogue
18:13Between the ruling party
18:16My ruling party
18:17And the opposition parties
18:19Which yielded the agreement
18:21That has now resulted
18:22In the constitutional provisions
18:24Being finally adopted
18:26The amendments to the constitution
18:29Which both parties agreed to
18:32And which paved the way
18:34To the elections
18:36For which our various parties
18:38Are now campaigning
18:40Consequently
18:41Consequently
18:42We will be holding
18:43Multiple democratic elections
18:45In March 2008
18:47Indeed
18:48We have always had
18:51Timious general and presidential elections
18:54Since our independence
18:56Mr. President
18:58We want to be left alone
19:02We will interact with those in our region
19:07And those in organizations to which we belong
19:13In conclusion let me
19:15Mr. President
19:16Stress once more that the strength of the United Nations
19:20Lies in its universality and impartiality
19:24As it implements its mandate to promote peace and security
19:29Economic and social development
19:32Human rights and international law
19:34As outlined in the Charter
19:36Zimbabwe stands ready to play its part
19:40In all efforts and programs
19:42Aimed at achieving these noble goals
19:45The Charter of the United Nations
19:49Is our Charter also in Africa
19:52And we uphold it
19:55Wrath unto him
19:57Who defies the Charter
20:00I thank you
20:14On behalf of the General Assembly
20:16I wish to thank the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe
20:19For the statement just made
20:21May I request representatives to remain seated
20:24While the Deputy Secretary General and I greet the President
20:27Thank you
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