- (SAPA) -- Zimbabwe customs officials on Monday refused
to allow 30 tons of emergency food into the country obtained by the main
opposition party, citing import regulations, a party official said.
-
- "They've refused (to allow the maize through). They've
detained the maize until we obtain an import permit," said Renson
Gasela, shadow agriculture minister of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
-
- Last week the MDC launched an appeal for food aid to
feed up to six million people -- roughly half the population -- who are
facing starvation according to UN figures.
-
- They cited inadequacies in the government's ability to
meet a 1,8-million ton shortfall of maize, a national staple.
-
- Through the Feed Zimbabwe Trust, the MDC has said it
will bring in emergency food aid to supplement the efforts by aid agencies
and the government.
-
- But the initiative was likely to be seen as a challenge
by the government of President Robert Mugabe, which has said it will let
no one starve.
-
- Last month the UN warned that imports were falling way
below national consumption, and that Zimbabwe had only imported enough
grain to last the country two months.
-
- "We're going to apply pressure. We're going to continue
to bring food. I hope they (the government) will see reason," said
Gasela by telephone from the Beitbridge border post with South Africa,
560 kilometres south of Harare.
-
- "We're going to stockpile maize at Beitbridge as
long as they refuse," he added.
-
- Regulations in the country stipulate that only the government-run
Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has the authority to import maize into the
country. -Sapa-AFP
-
- Note: This and other news reports seem to indicate that
the UN and the rest of the world are so generous that they would be able
to feed the entire population of Zimbabwe and that it is clear the Mugabe's
ZANU(PF) party is the element which is deliberately intent on ensuring
that people starve to death. This is a clear indication of the utter evil
in the Mugabe camp that they will deliberately turn away aid so as to murder
people. -- Jan
-
- http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.jsp?a=37&o=8397
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