Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said his government had no choice but to allow Mugabe to attend the conference, just as New York City or the United States have no choice when horrible heads of state attend UN meetings in Manhattan.
"That is the spirit of the UN -- that the world needs a place where we can meet with those we basically don't like," Rasmussen explained to reporters who had inquired about Mugabe's attendance. "And I guess that is how you can characterize the person you're asking about."
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TOXIC SLIME: Robert Mugabe, who knows a thing or two about destroying the environment -- thanks to his making Zimbabwe a wasteland -- yesterday at Copenhagen.
But the real reason for Mugabe's trip is that it's his only chance to go shopping in Europe while he's under an international travel ban, said Stanford Mukasa, a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who has studied Zimbabwe and Mugabe.
"Mugabe has nothing to offer to the climate-control conference because he is one of the guilty parties by his deliberate policies at home," Mukasa said.
And even as Mugabe thumbed his nose at the world, the host country welcomed him.
"I see no problem in greeting him," Rasmussen said, but added: "Nobody can be in doubt about my attitude toward Zimbabwe and Mugabe."
Mugabe is banned by the European Union from traveling to member states, including Denmark, as part of sanctions intended to pressure him to into allowing political reforms and improving the African nation's awful human-rights record.
Mugabe's attendance had many critics saying the global environmental summit stands revealed as a farce.
"This finally exposes what this whole conference is about," said a senior Republican aide on Capitol Hill.
"Thank God Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot didn't figure out they could fund their dictatorships with this global-warming hoax," the aide said. "This guy's just showing up to collect his check."
Under the plans being considered at the UN conference, developed countries such as the United States and European nations will pay billions to Third World countries such as those in Africa to pay for the alleged effects of global warming.
According to African press accounts, Mugabe aims to offer strategies to curb the climate change he believes has caused protracted droughts, floods and erratic rains in Zimbabwe. But Mugabe has been widely condemned for disastrous management of his country's resources -- including stripping lands from competent farmers and giving them to cronies -- and turning Zimbabwe from Africa's breadbasket into a basket case.
Nonetheless, he is set to address the summit later in the week. As a head of state, Mugabe will attend a dinner tomorrow hosted by Denmark's Queen Margrethe II.
Mugabe was joined by his wife and a huge delegation -- as many as 59 other people.
* New York Post
