Edit of Zimbabwe's president addresses Earth Summit

(2 Sep 2002)
1. Various Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, walking onto stage
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe:
"Your excellencies we must examine why 10 years after Rio, the poor remain very much with us - poorer and far more exposed and vulnerable as ever before. Our children suffer from malnutrition and diseases, compounded by the deadly HIV-AIDS endemic. The betrayal of the collective agenda we set ourselves at Rio is a compelling manifestation of bad global governance, a lack of real political will by the north and a total absence of rule of law in international affairs."
3. Cutaway
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe:
"The poor should be able to use their sovereignty to fight poverty and preserve their heritage in the corner of the earth without interference which is why we understand only too well that sustainable development is not possible without agrarian reforms that acknowledging in our case, that land comes first before all else, and that all else grows from the land. This is the one asset that not only defines the Zimbabwean personality and demarcates sovereignty but also an asset that has a direct bearing on the fortunes of the poor and prospects for their immediate empowerment and sustainable development. Indeed, ours is an agrarian economy, an imperative that renders the issue of access to land paramount. In our situation, Mr. President, this fundamental question has pitted the black majority who are the right holders and therefore, primary stakeholders of our land, against an internationally well connected racial minority, largely of British descent, and brought in and sustained by British colonialism, now being supported and manipulated by the Blair government."
5. Cutaway audience
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe:
"Let no one who is negative want to spoil what we are doing for ourselves, in order to unite Africa. We belong to this continent. We don't mind having and bearing sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans and we have not asked for any inch of Europe, or any spare inch of that territory. So Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe."
7. Cutaway audience
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe:
"People must always come first in sustainable development and later Africans come first in the development of Africa. Not as puppets, not as beggars but as a sovereign people. Thank-you."
STORYLINE:
Speaking at the Earth Summit in South Africa on Monday, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe attacked British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, telling him to stop interfering in Zimbabwean affairs.
Mugabe told gathered world leaders at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, "Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe."
During his speech, Mugabe also defended his government's land reforms. He said white farmers in Zimbabwe were "an internationally well connected racial minority, largely of British descent, and brought in and sustained by British colonialism, now being supported and manipulated by the Blair government."
The British Prime Minister was not in the hall during Mugabe's speech.

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