Zim to discuss food flow
2003-08-21 21:40
Harare - Zimbabwe has agreed to meet international relief agencies to discuss a new law that gives it full control of food distribution, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday.
President Robert Mugabe's government last week introduced new regulations that banned the agencies from independently distributing international food aid to millions of famine-threatened people, raising suspicion that the aid was likely to be distributed on partisan grounds.
Luis Clemens, WFP spokesperson in Zimbabwe said his organisation had held talks with the Minister of Social Welfare July Moyo on Wednesday to "express our concerns about several issues in the policy document".
The Minister promised he would hold a meeting with all the donors distributing food aid in Zimbabwe, where it is estimated some 5.5 million people, or half the population, will run out of food before the end of the year.
"We also made it clear that several donors had contacted us and pointed out their concerns," Clemens told AFP.
Zimbabwean opposition groups have already accused the government of discriminating against known opposition supporters in the distribution of emergency aid.
There have been reports that local authorities have been asking people to produce membership cards for the ruling ZANU-PF party in order to receive food.
The European Commission said on Thursday it was studying the impact of new rules on food aid distribution, and said it would be concerned if they hampered its operations in the country.
The new policy directive has not yet been implemented at local level.
Meanwhile, Clemens said the identification of beneficiaries and distribution of food aid was continuing to be carried out with full participation of WFP partner organisations on the ground.
Currently some 3.5 million Zimbabweans are receiving food aid, a number forecast to rise sharply as food stocks dwindle towards the end of the year.
The government last month launched an appeal for 700 000 tonnes of aid to stave off hunger until next year's harvests in April.
Poor rains have devastated crops and grazing in this southern African country, once hailed as the breadbasket of the region.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), international aid agencies and western nations say that a government land reform programme that has redistributed former white-owned commercial farms to new black farmers is also to blame for the food crisis.