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African
food crisis spurs UN debate on Zimbabwe
Evelyn Leopold, Reuters
June
30, 2005
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30572049.htm
UNITED NATIONS
- The United States and European nations raised Zimbabwe's housing
demolitions in the Security Council for the first time on Thursday,
using a debate on extreme hunger in southern Africa as an means
of getting the issue on the agenda.
But diplomats
said most Council members were resisting discussion, saying the
Zimbabwe crisis is internal and not an international peace and security
issue. And African leaders have rejected Western condemnation of
the forced eviction of slum dwellers from urban areas.
"Up to 300,000
people have been made homeless and thousands of children are forced
to abandon school," said Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry.
"It is important to realize that this crisis has been caused by
the action of the Zimbabwean government. It is man-made and not
a natural phenomenon."
Anne Patterson,
the acting U.S. Ambassador, estimated 420,000 people were homeless,
many of them children.
"We stand ready
to assist Zimbabwe with large-scale food assistance, as we did in
2002-2004, but we strongly oppose government policies that are making
the problem worse, and we urge the government to end the slum demolition
campaign," Patterson said.
"Zimbabwe's
self-inflicted economic meltdown affects trade, investment and food
security throughout southern Africa."
Denmark and
Greece were also critical of Zimbabwe and France voiced concern
only about the food situation.
But Tanzania's
deputy U.N. ambassador, Tuvako Nathaniel Manogi, said too many people
were shedding "crocodile years" as he had watched repeated pleas
for food assistance go unheeded in his country, which is flooded
with refugees.
Worldwide food
aid was also declining to the poorest of the poor nations even though
the number of hungry people was increasing. "The archives of this
organization are full of good intentions. We are all better at talking
than acting," he said.
Biggest
crisis in Southern Africa
James
Morris, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Program told
the Council that "the greatest humanitarian crisis we face today"
was not in Darfur, Afghanistan or North Korea but the disintegration
of the social structures in southern Africa and accompanying hunger.
"A lethal mix
of AIDS, recurring drought and failing governance is eroding social
and political stability," he said, "Life expectancy in much of southern
Africa is barely more than it was in Europe during the Middle Ages."
The number of
people needing food aid in southern Africa soared from 3.5 million
people at the beginning of the year to 8.3 million today because
of the reoccurring drought.
Morris, a former
businessman from India, said 4 million Zimbabweans urgently needed
food and the country intended to import 1.2 million metric tons
of cereal grains, most of the 1.8 tons it needs.
He said he expected
the harvest in Zimbabwe to yield 400,000 to 600,000 tons (tonnes)
and said WFP would contribute 300,000 tons.
But Morris said
he had made clear to President Robert Mugabe that WFP and its partners
would not accept restrictions. "I have to say we have been able
to do our work," he said.
"Our job is
to feed the hungry and the at-risk population," he said. "We leave
the political issues for others to resolve."
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