Reuters AlertNet Lite - Zimbabwe expected to chair key UN environment body

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Zimbabwe expected to chair key UN environment body

09 May 2007 19:42:45 GMT
Source: Reuters

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe appears set to head the Commission on Sustainable Development, the main U.N. inter-governmental body on environment and development, diplomats said on Wednesday.

But Norway said the election was not certain and added its objections to those of the United States and other Western nations to the candidacy of Zimbabwe, whose economy is crumbling with inflation running above 2,000 percent.

Erik Solheim, Norway's international development minister, said the issue was not settled yet on whether Zimbabwe's Environment Minister Francis Nheme would be elected to the post at the end of this week. His nomination has broad support from African nations, whose turn it is to assume the leadership.

"We do not find Zimbabwe the right country to head the CSD for the next period," Solheim said.

Environment and development ministers are meeting at U.N. headquarters this week for the CSD's annual session, which this year focuses on energy efficiency and alternative sources.

On Friday, Tom Casey, the U.S. State Department deputy spokesman, said: "We don't think that Zimbabwe would be a particularly effective leader of this body."

He said development in the southern African country has "been going in only one direction -- and it's backwards."

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, widely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's policies, such as the seizure of white-held farms to resettle landless blacks.

Mugabe, the country's sole ruler since independence, denies mismanaging the economy and blames Western sanctions for the crisis.

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Last updated:Wed May 9 19:44:49 2007