Zimbabwe elected to chair key UN environment body

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (Reuters) Zimbabwe, widely criticized for mismanaging its economy, was narrowly elected head of the main UN inter-governmental body on the environment despite opposition led by European Union nations.

EU countries also objected to the Commission on Sustainable Development's entire two-week session, which they said had degenerated into scripted speeches without setting targets for renewable energy and other environmental policies.

As a result, the commission ended the conference among ministers from around the world yesterday without coming up with a consensus document after the 25-member EU refused to approve a paper because it did not include concrete measures.

After attempts at agreement failed, the commission voted for Zimbabwe's environment and tourism minister, Francis Nheme. The post rotates among regions and Nheme was Africa's choice to lead the commission for the next year.

The vote by secret ballot was 26-21 with three abstentions.

Fifty of the 53 commission members voted.

Criticism came quickly.

''We really think it calls into question the credibility of this organization to have a representative from a country that has decimated its agriculture, that used to be the breadbasket of Africa and can't now feed itself,'' Daniel Reifsnyder, the US deputy assistant secretary for environment, told reporters after the meeting.

But the soft-spoken Nheme said, ''I think it's not time to point fingers.'' ''Different opinions were expressed and it is their right to express those opinions. At the end of the day majority rules as democracy should,'' he said.

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with inflation running at 2,000 percent.

Mugabe's policies, including the seizure of white-held farms to resettle landless blacks, are often blamed along with corruption and violence against opponents.

The UN conference aimed to produce policies to advance long-term energy solutions that can contribute to economic and social development while protecting the environment. The object was to persuade developing nations to leapfrog past industrial countries' dependence on fossil fuel.

IMPOSSIBLE TO INVITE Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, noted that the EU and the United States had imposed travel sanctions, among other penalties, against officials in President Robert Mugabe's government for human rights abuses.

''It would not be possible for us to invite the next chair, if it is from the government of Zimbabwe, or to have contacts with the chair,'' said Gabriel, whose country holds EU's current presidency.

Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, also issued a statement.

''Zimbabwe's election will be seen as an outrage by millions of people who look to the United Nations for help to escape from poverty,'' the British minister for climate change and the environment, Ian Pearson, said.

''They will be asking how the body charged with promoting sustainable development will be able to maintain credibility whilst being chaired by a representative of a government whose failed policies have destroyed its own economy.'' Before Zimbabwe's election, the outgoing chairman, Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, attempted to get a last-minute agreement on a closing document.

The EU nations refused, however.

''The challenges posed by climate change, energy security, and air pollution are now seen more clearly than five years ago,'' said Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for the environment. ''They require strengthened and more ambitious, international policy commitments.'' Reuters SG GC1728