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2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Post-election violence 2008 - Index of articles & images
Mugabe
wants control over food aid distribution
Tinotenda
Kandi, ZimOnline
May 21, 2008
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=3190
President Robert
Mugabe's government has told relief agencies to hand over food and
other humanitarian assistance to state organs for distribution to
victims of political violence, the National
Association of Non-governmental Organizations (NANGO) said on
Tuesday.
NANGO spokesman Fambai
Ngirande said aid groups had rejected the plan fearing it would
lead to partisan distribution of aid with known opposition supporters
likely to be denied assistance.
Mugabe's government is
often accused of denying food aid to hungry supporters of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party as punishment for not
backing the veteran leader - a charge the government denies.
The NANGO official said
some relief groups had instead opted to use clandestine means to
channel support directly to victims of violence, but added that
this posed a 'great risk' to the agencies.
Ngirande said: 'The government
has indicated that it would accept assistance from NGOs on condition
that state organs would be in control and we felt this would result
in a very partisan distribution.
'As a result we have
had to establish a support system that is clandestine and a lot
of risky work is being undertaken by our local groups to reach out
to those in need of help.'
Information Minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu defended the government's decision to insist on
controlling distribution of aid, saying the Harare administration
would not give 'free rein' to NGOs wanting to use relief work as
a pretext to campaign for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
'We are suspicious of
them because they openly support MDC people. If we allow them to
distribute assistance, they will use it to campaign for Tsvangirai
while undermining our own government,' said Ndlovu. 'We can't allow
them to drive the regime change agenda that easily.'
Zimbabwe holds a second
presidential election on June 27 after electoral authorities said
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a March 29 election but failed to
garner more than 50 percent of the vote required to takeover the
presidency.
The MDC, which claims
that the army is plotting to assassinate Tsvangirai, has accused
accuses state security forces and ruling ZANU PF party militias
of waging a campaign of violence against opposition supporters in
a bid to force them to vote for Mugabe in the run-off ballot.
The opposition
party says that at least 41 of its members have been killed
in the political impasse over the past two months while several
thousands more had been displaced from their homes and are in need
of shelter and food assistance.
Analysts and human rights
groups say political violence is set to worsen as the second round
presidential election draws closer and more humanitarian assistance
would be required to help an increasing number of victims.
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