WHO staff ‘dumbfounded’ at Mugabe choice
UNITED NATIONS: He is best known as a ruthless dictator, tainted by corruption and with countless human rights abuses to his name. Yet from now on Robert Mugabe will be able to add the title ‘‘UN goodwill ambassador’’ to his otherwise unsavoury list of achievements.
The UN-run World Health Organisation (WHO) has provoked outrage by bestowing the prestigious role on Mugabe, 93, Zimbabwe’s first prime minister and second president, but the country’s effective leader for all 37 years since it gained independence.
Diplomats said his appointment was a political payoff from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - the WHO’s first African directorgeneral - to China, a long-time ally of Mugabe, and the 50 or so African states that helped to secure Tedros’s election earlier this year.
Yesterday, 28 global health bodies including the World Heart Federation and Cancer Research UK issued a joint statement expressing their ‘‘shock and concern’’ at the appointment, noting that Mugabe had ‘‘undermined the dignity of human beings’’ throughout his rule.
The executive director of UN Watch called it ‘‘UN sick joke of the week’’, describing Mugabe as a ‘‘tyrant’’. Downing Street said it was ‘‘surprising and disappointing, particularly in light of the current US and EU sanctions against him’’.
‘‘It’s a depressing sign of the times,’’ said a western official at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters. It is also proof of rising Chinese power and waning western influence.
Tedros, a former Ethiopian foreign minister, beat Britain’s David Nabarro in the contest to become director-general of the WHO, winning the votes of more than half its 194 member nations.
Chinese diplomats had campaigned hard for the Ethiopian, using Beijing’s financial clout and opaque aid budget to build support for him among developing countries.
China has praised the authoritarian development model of Ethiopia’s regime, which rules under emergency powers and has put down pro-democracy protests.
Tedros’s supporters predicted he would weather the storm of criticism and may even benefit politically from Mugabe’s appointment.
A WHO spokesman said the Zimbabwean president was chosen because Tedros was determined ‘‘to promote high-level political leadership for health’’.
Within the WHO there was consternation, however. Anthony Costello, director of maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, tweeted: ‘‘Senior WHO staff dumbfounded. Greatly concerned about the effects this decision will have on our credibility and funding.’’
In choosing Mugabe, Tedros praised Zimbabwe’s commitment to public health. Critics were quick to point out that the country’s healthcare had deteriorated so badly under Mugabe’s rule that he himself goes to a luxurious private hospital in Singapore for treatment.
Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, described the news as ‘‘laughable’’, saying: ‘‘The Zimbabwe health delivery system is in a shambolic state, it is an insult. Mugabe trashed our health delivery system.’’ Last year, Citizens Health Watch, a watchdog based in the capital, Harare, reported that 90 per cent of the country’s healthcare institutions did not have essential medicines such as painkillers and antibiotics in stock.
Mugabe’s role with the WHO will be to tackle noncommunicable diseases, such as heart attacks, strokes and asthma, across Africa.
The state-run Herald newspaper reported the role as ‘‘a new feather in the president’s cap’’, but the website New Zimbabwe called Mugabe a ‘‘medical tourist’’ and said there was widespread outrage.
Mugabe’s appointment means he joins the ranks of other highprofile figures made goodwill ambassadors for the UN, including Novak Djokovic and Angelina Jolie.