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From: as on 16 Dec 2009 06:05
Mugabe to join climate talks under UN loophole

http://uk.reuters.com/

Tue Dec 15, 2009 7:10pm GMT

COPENHAGEN, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe
arrived in Denmark on Tuesday to attend U.N. climate talks, despite
Western sanctions on his travel and public disapproval from his Danish
hosts.

Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that Mugabe was
allowed to attend the Copenhagen climate conference because of rules
that permit him to attend U.N. meetings, over-riding European Union and
United States travel bans.

"That is the spirit of the U.N. -- that the world needs a place where
we can meet with those we basically don't like. And I guess that is how
you can characterise the person you're asking about," Rasmussen said
when questioned about Mugabe.

Mugabe's arrival prompted local media to ask whether Danish leaders
would shake the 85-year-old African leader's hand and whether, as elder
statesman, Mugabe will be seated next to Denmark's Queen Margrethe at a
dinner on Thursday for heads of state and government attending the
climate conference.

Mugabe, in power since 1980, is one of more than 110 world leaders
attending the final two days of the conference that is trying to reach
a global climate agreement.

Upon arrival, Mugabe said he expected from the Copenhagen conference
"what everybody else hopes to get -- an agreement."

He denied feeling isolated. "I am a member of the world population. I'm
only one dot in the population. I am a member of the world. Why should
I feel isolated?"

U.S. President Barack Obama, who has called Mugabe a "dictator", is to
attend the Copenhagen conference on Friday.

Mugabe is a pariah in the West, blamed by critics for plunging his
southern African country into poverty through authoritarian rule,
economic mismanagement and corruption.

He has blamed the West for ruining his country with sanctions, which he
says are in retaliation for the seizing of white-owned farms on behalf
of landless blacks.

He rules Zimbabwe under a 2008 power-sharing agreement with his
political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai. (Reporting by John Acher and
Henriette Jacobsen; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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