this says all you need to know about the UN

Zimbabwe chosen to chair UN environment body

Zimbabwe has been elected as head of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the main United Nations inter-governmental body on the environment, despite objections from western nations.

The 53-nation commission has voted Zimbabwe's Environment and Tourism Minister, Francis Nheme, as chairman.

The post rotates among regions and Africa nominated Mr Nheme as chairman of the commission. The chairmanship was previously held by oil-producer Qatar.

Both the United States and the European Union have imposed targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe for human rights abuses under the regime of President Robert Mugabe.

This week, Australian Prime Minister John Howard compared Mr Mugabe's security forces to the Nazi Gestapo secret police.

Defending the decision, Zimbabwe's UN ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku asked the BBC: "What has sustainable development to do with human rights?"

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with inflation running at 2,000 per cent. Mr Mugabe's policies, including the seizure of white-held farms to resettle landless blacks, are often blamed.

Mr Mugabe, the country's sole ruler since independence, denies mismanaging the economy and blames Western sanctions for the state of Zimbabwe's economy.

On Friday, US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey 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."