Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has tightened control on food supplies in his beleaguered country, starving opponents and manipulating relief aid to enforce his hold on power, a Danish human rights group said on Wednesday.
"If it is not possible to increase non-partisan food supplies into the country, it is our opinion that starvation and eventually death will occur along party political lines in Zimbabwe," Christian Tramsen of Physicians for Human Rights-Denmark told a news conference in Johannesburg.
The Danish report, based on extensive interviews within Zimbabwe over the last three months, is the latest to allege that Mugabe has cut off food to opponents who have challenged the power of his ruling Zanu-PF party. Half of Zimbabwe's 14 million people are at risk of starvation, according to the UN's World Food Programme (WFP).
Zanu-PF, which blames the country's food crisis on drought, denies it has politicised food distribution and has accused some aid agencies of sending more relief to opposition strongholds.
The Danish report alleged that the government began tightening control over food supplies ahead of the March 2002 election which saw Mugabe elected to his fifth term in office.
Food for some?
With the country facing its worst economic crisis in 22 years of independence, the state Grain Marketing Board has used its power to permit sales to supporters of Zanu-PF while turning away members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the report said.
"Zanu-PF appears to be maintaining a situation where there is too little food in the country, by controlling all sales and imports," the report said.
Foreign food aid has been seized by Zanu-PF to reward supporters and even sold on the black market to boost income for party officials, the report alleged.
"We suggest that all donors should be aware of this fact, and they should try to determine that all people who are at high risk -- all people who are starving for food - should get it," Tramsen said.
WFP, a major donor to Zimbabwe, has rejected suggestions that its aid has been politically hijacked. The agency suspended food deliveries to one district last month after Zanu-PF supporters grabbed consignments, but WFP officials say they so far have no evidence of systematic abuses of donated food.
"If there is any politicisation at all then we immediately suspend operations," said WFP spokesperson Jennifer Abrahamson.
"We are making an extremely strong, concerted effort that that does not happen to our food aid," she said.
