Zimbabwe -- Letter to aid agencies

Zimbabwe Democracy Trust via ZWNews ^ | August 2, 2002 | Annabel Hughes, Zimbabwe Democracy Trust

[Clive]

Letter from the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust to agencies funding and supplying food relief to Zimbabwe. This letter has been sent to the World Food Programme, Oxfam, British Red Cross, UNDP and Save the Children.

Dear Director:

As evidence grows that Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe is using food aid as a political weapon, we are writing to ask what steps your organisation is taking, and about any additional measures you propose to take, to prevent this. Could you let us know who is actually distributing the food for which you seek funding? What experience has your organisation had of militants of the ruling Zanu PF party blocking distribution in areas perceived as loyal to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change? What has your organisation done, or what does it propose to do, when your food supplies are blocked or seized by Zanu PF militants?

The regime has now dropped all pretence of not discriminating, and Mugabe in a speech at the recent opening of Parliament in Harare rejected appeals to reverse his disastrous policies of seizing white-owned farms. About the same time, his deputy foreign minister, Abednico Ncube, told a crowd in Matabeleland (an opposition stronghold): "As long as you value the government of the day, you will not starve, but we do not want people who vote for colonialists and then come to us when they want food. You cannot vote for the MDC and expect Zanu PF to help you." To underline the point, Ncube added that soon "maize will be available only to those who dump the opposition and work with Zanu PF."

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace reports that at Binga, on the shore of Lake Kariba, it has a store of 115 tonnes of fortified porridge intended for distribution to 28,000 schoolchildren in the district. But since May 25 some 30 Zanu PF militants, armed with stones and clubs and with police connivance, have blocked the distribution on grounds "the food comes from the UK and is being used to support the opposition." In Mberengwa, central Zimbabwe, the MDC says Zanu PF officials are stopping opposition party supporters getting food donated by the World Food Programme. There are first-hand reports from Harare, Bulawayo, Murehwa, Mutoko and Chiredzi that people must produce Zanu PF cards to buy maize.As British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw commented at an European Union meeting in Brussels which extended targeted sanctions against Mugabe's top officials: "They are willing, literally, to let their people starve unless they vote for a corrupt and bankrupt regime."

We appreciate that donor agencies can do little about the abuse of maize distributed by the state-run Grain Marketing Board. But as an organisation that works to restore the rule of law and good governance to Zimbabwe, we at the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust are appalled at the abuse by Mugabe and his regime of Western food aid. We look forward to your response, and, naturally, to publishing it on our website, www.zwnews.com , the world's leading website on Zimbabwe.

Your sincerely

Annabel Hughes
Zimbabwe Democracy Trust

[Clive]

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[headsonpikes]

One particular head on one particular pike.

[Travis McGee]

They need guns to take the food.

[jjm2111]

The U.S. should air-drop weapons on Zimbabwe. Maybe the people there can take back their country from that Thug-for-life Mugabe.

[Travis McGee]

Some philanthropist needs to start using light planes to fly in AKs and Enfields. The people will do the rest.