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Army fears food riots
Itai Mushekwe, The Zimbabwe Independent
January 27, 2006

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2006/January/Friday27/4104.html

RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono this week made the startling revelation that Zimbabwe's highest-ranking military commander feared hunger could spark food riots and civil unrest.

Gono said on Tuesday Defence Forces commander General Constantine Chiwenga had warned him during a meeting that it was urgent to revive agriculture to preempt a popular revolt over food shortages.

Gono made the disclosure during his fourth quarter monetary policy statement.

As first reported in the Zimbabwe Independent on November 18 last year, the army has launched Operation Maguta to resuscitate agriculture that has been ruined by the chaotic land reform programme.

Maguta, an initiative of the Joint Operations Command which brings together the army, intelligence, prison and police chiefs, was driven, it would now appear, by fear of food riots stemming from widespread hunger.

A recent report by the Zimbabwe Rural Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment team, which includes government representatives and civil society, said 2,9 million people in rural areas would need food aid this year.

Aid agencies have also warned of a poor harvest despite current heavy rains. They ascribed this to the lack of planning and a critical shortage of farming inputs.

"The country is ... standing on the edge of a cliff which threatens to irreversibly take us downhill if we do not boldly move forward with speed to address most of our shortcomings," Gono told shocked business and political leaders on Tuesday.

Gono said Chiwenga told him he did not want to command his troops "to turn our guns on hungry Zimbabweans" protesting against food shortages.

Gono has been working closely with the army to revive agriculture by deploying solders to farm large tracts of land.

He said Chiwenga had told him it was necessary to ensure enough food production to prevent riots.

"To quote the wisdom of General C Chiwenga, Commander of the Defence Forces: 'A hungry man is an angry man', and as Zimbabweans, we must pull together to ensure full productivity in agriculture so that hunger is alien to every Zimbabwean," Gono said.

"General Chiwenga told me: 'Make sure agriculture is revived and make food available so we (soldiers) will not be forced to turn our guns on hungry Zimbabweans'."

Gono's remarks, observers say, betray deep anxiety in official circles that food shortages could ignite civil unrest. Zimbabweans staged riots triggered by a wave of price escalations and extortionate taxes in 1998. At least 10 people were killed during the demonstrations which saw the army deploying tanks on the streets.

A report by the New African magazine, carried in the state media last year and attributed to interviews with senior officials, revealed Operation Murambatsvina was launched amid warnings by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) after the disputed March general election that popular uprisings against government were looming.

The report said the crackdown on shanties and informal business, which the United Nations said left 18% of the population homeless and a trail of destruction, was a swift pre-emptive strike against an anti-government Ukraine-style "Orange Revolution".

These revelations show government's deepening insecurity as social and economic conditions deteriorate. Government is now relying on the state security agencies - whose operatives now pervade the bureaucracy - to maintain its faltering grip on power.

Maguta came after a parliamentary portfolio committee report slammed government for poor planning in the agricultural sector. Government's own reports have admitted farm invasions and seizures have seriously affected agricultural production. Army fears food riots 'Look East' costs AirZim $980 billion

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