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  Zimbabwe’s silent, selective starvation

Nairobi/Brussels, 29 August 2002: The ZANU-PF government of President Robert Mugabe is carrying out a policy of selective starvation against its political enemies. The denial of food to opposition strongholds has replaced overt violence as the government’s principal tool of repression in Zimbabwe. Mortality and morbidity rates will continue to accelerate if this policy is not reversed.

The most vulnerable sub-group is Zimbabwe’s black farm workers, who have been displaced by ZANU-PF land-grabs. The media, especially in the UK, has concentrated on the plight of hundreds of white farmers forced off the land, but more than 1.5 million black farm workers and family members are at risk of acute hunger.

ICG Africa Program Co-Director John Prendergast has just toured Zimbabwe, and makes these observations:

  • AIDS deaths are accelerating as a result of poor nutrition due to the denial of food to certain areas.

  • Repression is increasing ahead of district elections to be held in late September.

  • The distribution of food aid has already been politicised, but the commercial food sector is also increasingly monopolised and corrupted by ZANU-PF.

“The Zimbabwean government’s strategy of using of food as a political weapon is working. People are beginning to die as a result of their perceived support of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),” said Prendergast.

President Mugabe’s attendance at the World Summit for Social Development in Johannesburg – and his speech on 2 September – can still be an opportunity for regional leaders, the African Union, the Commonwealth, the EU, and the U.S. to press for the restoration of democracy in Zimbabwe – and save lives.

“The developing famine in Zimbabwe is rooted in bad governance”, said Prendergast, “Recent U.S. rhetoric about the illegitimacy of the Mugabe government must be backed up by assertive diplomacy. It is time for real international cooperation in promoting democratic change in Zimbabwe.”

The region and the international community must intensify efforts to produce an inclusive interim government, leading to internationally supervised elections. This will require a range of pressures and incentives, with the close involvement of neighbouring states. In the absence of such an effort, thousands of Zimbabweans may die of starvation.

Repression – with food as the primary weapon - is increasing ahead of district elections to be held on 28-29 September. ICG has learned that ZANU-PF officials are telling local chiefs and headmen that if they do not produce a ruling party victory in their areas, they will not receive food.

The distribution of food aid has already been politicised but ZANU-PF is also politicising commercial food distribution. It monopolises food imports, steering food to or away from areas based on political calculations, allowing party officials to profit from the re-sale of food at exorbitant prices, and in some locations requires ZANU-PF membership as a condition of purchasing food.

“Deliberately creating food shortages in opposition areas not only punishes MDC supporters but also provides ruling party officials with further opportunities for profitable food re-sale rackets”, said Prendergast. “The system is controlled and corrupted from the top by key ZANU-PF and military officials straight down to the local retailers at the village level. When people die of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition, it is as a result of this political control and corruption.”

John Prendergast is available for interview: Mobile: +254 722 44 11 56


ICG MEDIA CONTACTS
Katy Cronin (London) +44.20.86.82.93.51
email: [email protected]
Ana Caprile (Brussels) +32-2-536.00.70
Jennifer Leonard (Washington) +1-202-408 8012

ICG reports on Zimbabwe are available on our website: www.crisisweb.org

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