US envoy to assess Zim
2005-08-12 09:23
Harare - A leading United States advocate of food aid and relief began a three-day visit to Zimbabwe on Thursday for a first-hand look at the humanitarian situation in the Southern African country, said a US embassy official.
Tony Hall, who is the US ambassador to United Nations relief agencies in Rome, met with representatives of international agencies in Harare and was due to hold talks with government officials on Friday.
Hall, who travelled to Zimbabwe in 2002, is also to make a brief field trip to the eastern Mutare region on Friday to visit a food distribution centre and a settlement for some of the displaced from the government demolitions campaign.
Zimbabwe has come under harsh criticism from the UN and western governments for carrying out a 10-week demolitions campaign that ended in late July, razing shacks, homes, market stalls and small businesses.
A UN report said 700 000 Zimbabweans had lost their homes or livelihoods or both in the cleanup blitz that the government described as an urban renewal campaign to get rid of crime and grime.
Hall is the US ambassador to the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), based in Rome.