No GM maize for refugees
2002-09-11 15:06
Lusaka - Zambia's government will not allow the World Food Programme (WFP) to feed over 130 000 refugees in the country with genetically modified (GM) food, the state-run Times of Zambia reported on Wednesday.
"The position of government rejecting GMF's was a national one
which applies to all categories of persons living in Zambia," home affairs minister Luckson Mapushi was quoted as saying.
"This applies to all refugees, including those living in camps
and receiving food aid from the WFP," the minister added.
WFP executive director James Morris last week announced Zambia
had allowed the WFP to distribute GM food to some of the 300 000 or so refugees living in Zambia, provided it milled the grain before distributing it.
Zambia, where more than two million people face starvation as a result of unrelenting drought, has rejected GM food aid, saying it must first be proven safe for human consumption and the
environment.
When the Zambian government decided to reject the GM food, the
WFP had already distributed over 6 000 tons of the commodity to refugees, the Times of Zambia reported Mapushi as saying.
"It is, therefore, not correct to indicate categorically that
they have been allowed to feed refugees with GMF's," Mapushi said.
This week the WFP agreed to try to find wheat which has not been genetically modified, to feed the hungry in Zambia.
Zambia shelters about 210 000 Angolan refugees, more than any other country. Others are from the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and Ethiopia. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA