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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Mugabe allows UN to increase food aid |
| 2005-06-03 |
| Real big of Bob to "allow" this... Zimbabwean leader puts tight conditions on deal Here's an idea. Let 'em starve. Maybe they'll over throw the bastard. President Robert Mugabe agreed yesterday to allow the United Nations to increase its food aid to Zimbabwe, but under tightly restricted conditions, the World Food Programme said. Mr Mugabe said he would welcome "several hundred thousand tonnes" of food, but stopped short of formally requesting the assistance, in a 90-minute meeting with the WFP director, James Morris, in Harare yesterday. Don't make me beg. That'd be dissin me... "Three to four million Zimbabweans will need food support in the coming year," said Mr Morris in Johannesburg after returning from Zimbabwe. "We want to see that hungry people will get the food they need." The UN agency will appeal to donors and hope the extra food supplies will arrive in Zimbabwe in up to two months. However, the WFP will not distribute food directly to the general population but will be limited to school feeding programmes, home-based Aids care, and food for work schemes, UN officials confirmed last night. Food for work "schemes"? Vote for Bob or starve? Mr Mugabe said his government would import 1.2m tonnes of food to feed the general population, according to Mr Morris. The restricted scope of the UN aid will leave the Mugabe government in charge of providing food to the general population. Another shrewd move by the UN. They'll show him. The Harare government has been accused of withholding food from areas that voted for the opposition in the March 31 elections. See above... Until recently Mr Mugabe had boasted that Zimbabwe had ample food stocks, but now has admitted the country has a drastic food shortage. However, the president insisted on the face-saving measure of not formally requesting aid but instead saying that he would "welcome" it, WFP officials said. Again., don't be dissin, Bob. Wouldn't want a couple of million starving people to hurt his self esteem. In January Mr Mugabe ordered the UN to stop its survey of Zimbabwe's crops and to dramatically cut its food distribution. "We don't want to choke on your food," he said. Mr Mugabe accused aid agencies of working against his government. Yeah. Don't let 'em eat too much, Bob. The UN wouldn't want to create an obesity epidemic in Zimbabwe. As a result of Mr Mugabe's decision, the UN food agency had to cut its provision of food from providing for five million people to helping one million, concentrating on children orphaned by Aids, the elderly and other vulnerable groups. The new agreement will prevent the WFP from resuming a programme of massive distributions across the country. Mr Morris reached the agreement with Mr Mugabe yesterday as a pall of smoke hung over the capital's townships from the large-scale demolition and burning by police of thousands of wooden shacks. I take it they're not on the "eating list"... The campaign in Zimbabwe's cities has made scores of thousands of families homeless. When asked if the demolition campaign had made Zimbabwe's humanitarian situation worse, Mr Morris paused and then said: "I have no answer for that." Send us lots more money and maybe we'll tackle that in 2 or 3 years. Mr Morris is a special envoy of the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, charged with looking at how "weak governance" is affecting the food crisis. He said he spoke about the destruction of homes to Mr Mugabe. "I think he heard what I said." Suuuuuuuuuure he did... Mr Morris said he intended to pass on to Mr Annan the calls by civic leaders that the UN send a special rapporteur to investigate Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis. "The UN needs to take a look at governance and civil society and its capacity to solve the toughest problems of the day," he told the Guardian. Send us more envoys. Zimbabwean civic leaders yesterday urged the UN to take a stronger stand with the Mugabe government. "Who is Robert Mugabe to say that there must be no political strings on the UN food aid?" said John Makumbe, political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. Good to know I'm not the only one who thinks that. But we are dealing with the UN here. The UN and Bob. Working together to make this paradise even better... |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #5 Coffee alert, big jim! LOL! Ironic thing is, you're probably right! |
| Posted by: BA 2005-06-03 13:39 |
| #4 Amnesty International will probably make Bob their man of the year. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-06-03 12:01 |
| #3 About time Zimbabweans take out their own trash - Mugabe. The alternative is a fast trip to hell. |
| Posted by: Tkat 2005-06-03 11:47 |
| #2 Let 'em starve. Maybe they'll over throw the bastard. Hard to do when the opposition has no weapons. But provide them with arms and the equation changes real quick. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-06-03 11:32 |
| #1 Does the word Dickweed come to mind? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-06-03 09:55 |