Posted on 07/28/2002 7:22:04 PM PDT by Clive
As aid agencies warn of the growing threat of starvation to millions of people in Zimbabwe, the BBC has uncovered evidence of widespread political interference in the distribution of food by President Robert Mugabe's supporters.
Food aid has been blocked in some areas which voted against Mr Mugabe during elections in March.
Opposition supporters have also been prevented from buying commercial stocks of grain.
The signs of food shortages and hunger are everywhere in Zimbabwe.
Groups of villagers wait for days at a time by the roadside for deliveries of scarce supplies of the staple food, maize.
In town and cities, long queues form outside supermarkets when stocks arrive.
The shelves are bare of basics such as sugar and salt.
Many people in urban areas are reduced to eating a single meal a day, but the hardship is most severe in villages.
I met families surviving on leaves and wild fruit.
They should be receiving food aid, but say it has been blocked by government supporters who accuse them of voting for the opposition.
Numerous interviewees said they had been refused permission to buy food from government grain depots unless they produced a ruling party membership card.
Hospital officials in the north-western town of Binga, where the aid effort is being held up by Mr Mugabe's followers, say nearly 30 children have died in recent weeks from malnutrition-related illness.
Others have died after eating poisonous roots.
Aid agencies complain that the government is trying to control the relief effort at every level.
Zimbabwe has suffered two poor rainy seasons in a row, but the crisis unfolding now is as much man-made as natural.
I always did like Rhodesia, zimbabwe sucks.
This place sounds like it is being run by Calypso Louie and the Fruits of Islam.
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