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Mugabe âsnubsâ top food aid official
Harare 15 June 2004 14:16 A visit to Zimbabwe scheduled for Tuesday by James Morris, the United Nationâs top food aid official, has been called off, UN officials said, in a sign of worsening relations between President Robert Mugabeâs government and the world body. James Morris, executive director of the World Food Programme, had Zimbabwe on his itinerary for a visit arranged months ago to five Southern African countries, but a UN spokesperson in Harare said on Tuesday the visit had been "postponed". "Unfortunately, due to a cabinet meeting, no government officials are likely to be able to meet with the special envoy," the spokesperson said. Meetings with "key government representatives" were an essential part of its consultations in Zimbabwe. Morris, also UN secretary-general Kofi Annanâs special humanitarian envoy to Southern Africa, would be going to Malawi on Tuesday instead. "Itâs a deliberate snub," said a Western diplomat. "Zimbabwe had agreed to the visit, and Morris was set down to see Mugabe. Late last week, they changed their minds." The calling off of Morrisâ visit occurred amid controversy over the governmentâs refusal to allow UN famine relief operations to continue for the third year in a row this year, despite widespread forecasts that crop output would again fall far below the volume needed to feed the countryâs 12-million people. Last month, Mugabe said the UN was "foisting" food on the country. "We are not hungry," he said. "We donât want to be choked." Since 2002, the United Nations has helped avert massive starvation as it delivered food to up to five million people at a time. Zimbabwe was Africaâs second biggest food producer, after South Africa, until 2000 when the countryâs agricultural industry began to collapse as a result of the illegal, violent state seizure of nearly all of the highly productive farmland owned by white farmers. - Sapa-DPA Posted by: Zenster 2004-06-15 |
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