UN blames Mugabe for crisis

UN blames Mugabe for crisis

Half the population needs food aid

The United Nations food agency has said that the Zimbabwe Government is largely responsible for the humanitarian crisis there.

The Zimbabwe crisis was "almost beyond comprehension" and could easily have been avoided, said James Morris, head of the World Food Programme.

He pointed to President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution programme, which has left thousands of normally productive farms lying idle.

Up to seven million people - half the population - need food aid, donors say.

This year's harvest is expected to be even lower than in 2002 - just 40% of normal.

The government has also been accused of diverting food aid away from opposition areas.

'Nightmare'

Mr Mugabe blames the food shortages on failed rains.

He also says that his land reform programme should increase food production, because white farmers generally grew cash crops such as tobacco and paprika, while small-scale black farmers generally grow the staple food, maize.

MUGABE'S LAND REFORM

2000: 4,000 whites owned 11m ha of prime land

2000: 1m blacks owned 16m ha, often in drought-prone areas

2000: Land invasions began

2003: 600 white farmers remain

Clickable guide:
The battle for land

But Mr Morris disagreed.

"This scheme (land reform) along with restrictions on private sector food marketing and a monopoly on food imports... are turning a drought that might have been managed into a humanitarian nightmare," he told lawmakers in the United States.

Mr Morris said that he had held six meetings with Mr Mugabe in the past six months but had failed to persuade him to alter his economic policies or remove bureaucratic obstacles to food production or aid distribution.

The head of the US Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios, agreed.

Zimbabwe had become "a basket case rapidly sliding into a disastrous famine that is politically induced," he said.

A government audit reportedly shows that many of the farms seized from white farmers have been allocated to government ministers and officials, rather than landless blacks.

In neighbouring Malawi, which was worst hit by the food shortages last year, the government says that the situation is improving this year.