FOOD Aid . . . government is accused of denying food aid to opposition supporters

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s government has told relief agencies to handover food and other humanitarian assistance to state organs for distribution to victims of political violence, the National Association of Non-governmental Organisations (NANGO) said on Tuesday.

NANGO spokesman Fambai Ngirande said aid groups had rejected the plan fearing it would lead to partisan distribution of aid with known opposition supporters likely to be denied assistance.

Mugabe’s government is often accused of denying food aid to hungry supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party as punishment for not backing the veteran leader – a charge the government denies.

The NANGO official said some relief groups had instead opted to use clandestine means to channel support directly to victims of violence, but added that this posed a “great risk” to the agencies.

Ngirande said: "The government has indicated that it would accept assistance from NGOs on condition that state organs would be in control and we felt this would result in a very partisan distribution.

“As a result we have had to establish a support system that is clandestine and a lot of risky work is being undertaken by our local groups to reach out to those in need of help."

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu defended the government’s decision to insist on controlling distribution of aid, saying the Harare administration would not give “free rein” to NGOs wanting to use relief work as a pretext to campaign for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

"We are suspicious of them because they openly support MDC people. If we allow them to distribute assistance, they will use it to campaign for Tsvangirai while undermining our own government,” said Ndlovu. “We can't allow them to drive the regime change agenda that easily."

Zimbabwe holds a second presidential election on June 27 after electoral authorities said Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a March 29 election but failed to garner more than 50 percent of the vote required to takeover the presidency.

The MDC, which claims that the army is plotting to assassinate Tsvangirai, has accused accuses state security forces and ruling ZANU PF party militias of waging a campaign of violence against opposition supporters in a bid to force them to vote for Mugabe in the run-off ballot.

The opposition party says that at least 41 of its members have been killed in political over the past two months while several thousands more had been displaced from their homes and are in need of shelter and food assistance.

Analysts and human rights groups say political violence is set to worsen as the second round presidential election draws closer and more humanitarian assistance would be required to help an increasing number of victims. – ZimOnline.