VIM to ZIM

According to an article in the June 4, 2008 issue of the New York Times, while Mugabe is in Rome at a United Nations conference on food, his henchmen at home are apparently telling international aid groups — CARE, Save the Children, and World Vision are mentioned in the article — to close up shop and stop distributing food and aid until after the presidential runoff election on June 27:

Zimbabwe Cuts Access to Aid - NYTimes.com

“Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Zimbabweans — orphans and old people, the sick and the down and out — have lost access to food and other basic humanitarian assistance as their government has clamped down on international aid groups it says are backing the political opposition, relief agencies say….

“On Friday and Monday, representatives of aid groups were summoned by administrators in four districts and instructed to cease all work in the field until a bitterly contested presidential runoff was held on June 27 between Mr. Mugabe, in power for 28 years, and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai…

“the police and the army warned the groups not to say anything publicly about their withdrawal and not to conduct any operations at night.

“Aid workers and human rights groups say the restrictions are meant to prevent them from witnessing attacks on opposition supporters, often in nighttime raids, amid the government’s increasingly violent and deadly crackdown on those it sees as a threat to its hold on power…

“Zimbabwean political analysts and civic leaders say that Mr. Mugabe and ZANU-PF, his governing party, are themselves seeking to use food as a political weapon in a country, once the region’s bread basket, where hunger now afflicts millions. The government recently bought 600,000 tons of corn. By barring NGOs from giving out food in some areas, the governing party controls food distribution and can use it to reward supporters and punish opponents.”

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/world/africa/04zimbabwe.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp