Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has defended land reforms blamed for plunging his people into starvation and lashed out at the West for imposing “inhuman sanctions.”

Addressing a UN food summit Tuesday, Mugabe said the policy under which thousands of white-owned commercial farms were seized in 2000 was a quest for “equity and justice.”

He blamed the subsequent meltdown of Zimbabwe‘s economy on “hostile interventions” by “neo-colonialist enemies” that have imposed “illegal and inhuman sanctions.”

Western countries have slapped travel bans and asset freezes on Mugabe and his top aides. The ban does not apply to United Nations summits.

(Source)