The politics of food relief

Food relief agencies were put in a quandary in 2002 over allegations that food was being distributed along political lines with those opposed to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front being denied food.

But, according to a cable released by Wikileaks, the dilemma was that investigations tended to indicate that such abuses were episodic rather than centrally manipulated.

The situation was compounded by hardliners like Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo. In a speech on May 18 in Binga town, he ordered the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace to close down its operations in Binga because it had created structures that competed with the government’s.

Full cable: 

Viewing cable 02HARARE1398, ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT HINDERING FOOD DELIVERIES IN

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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 001398 

SIPDIS 

STATE FOR AF AND AF/S 

USAID FOR AA/AFR, AA/DCHA, LPA 

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER 

LONDON FOR CGURNEY 

PARIS FOR CNEARY 

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2012 

TAGS: PGOV PHUM ASEC ZI

SUBJECT: ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT HINDERING FOOD DELIVERIES IN 

OPPOSITION STRONGHOLD - A PORTENT OF POLICY PROBLEMS AHEAD 

REF: HARARE 1307 

Classified By: Political Officer Todd Faulk for reasons 1.5 (b) 

and (d) 

¶1. (C) Summary: Assertions of humanitarian food aid 

manipulation for political purposes have been increasingly 

frequent in recent weeks. Investigations have tended to 

indicate that such abuses are episodic rather than centrally 

manipulated. However, recent reports from the Matabeleland 

town of Binga have confirmed a serious and significant 

attempt to deprive the needy of food aid for political and 

historical reasons. This is worrisome in the context of 

recent discussions between staff members of the House 

International Relations Committee (HIRC) and Minister of 

Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare July Moyo (reftel), 

who implied that the GOZ is willing to accept food aid, but 

only on its owns terms. There is the appearance that the GOZ 

is playing poker with the donors, staking the welfare of 

food-vulnerable Zimbabweans against donor demands for 

responsible policy reform on the assumption that the donors 

will fold in the face of impending humanitarian catastrophe 

for which they will be blamed. This approach, if pushed to 

its limit, poses a serious dilemma for U.S. policy toward the 

humanitarian relief program in Zimbabwe. It will be 

important to continue to do what we can to prevent human 

suffering, but simultaneously we cannot lose sight of the 

fact that yielding to GOZ demands that we play by their rules 

will be at best a palliative, but not a curative, measure. 

End Summary. 

------------------ 

Situation in Binga 

------------------ 

¶2. (C) In an effort to assert greater control over who 

receives increasingly scarce food in Zimbabwe, the 

Government, with the aid of war veterans and others, is 

disrupting food deliveries in Binga, a predominantly Ndebele 

district and opposition stronghold in Matabeleland North 

province. In a speech on May 18 in Binga town, Local 

Government Minister Ignatius Chombo ordered the Catholic 

Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), an NGO distributing 

food relief in Binga, to close down its operations in Binga 

because it had created structures that compete with the 

government's, according to the June 5 edition of the 

independent "Daily News." War veterans subsequently 

surrounded the CCJP's food warehouse in Binga town, at the 

southern end of Lake Kariba, to prevent any food supplies 

from leaving the premises. The CCJP feeding program 

distributes food purchased by the British Catholic charity 

CAFOD. (Note: U.S. assistance distributed through WFP and 

cooperating NGOs has not been similarly affected as yet. End 

note.) On June 5, poloff spoke to Tarcisius Zimbiti, acting 

director of CCJP, who verified that the story is essentially 

true, and added that the war veterans took action only after 

Chombo made his speech. Zimbiti stated that although CCJP 

cannot get any more food out of the warehouse in town, it is 

still able to conduct limited food relief operations in rural 

areas of Binga district using whatever supplies were already 

outside the warehouse. Zimbiti was unsure of the number of 

people affected in the district because of the war veterans' 

actions, but confirmed that CCJP was unable to continue 

supplying hospitals and schools in the district. CCJP is 

seeking a court injunction against the war veterans to compel 

them to lift their siege, and it has repeatedly sought a 

meeting with Minister Chombo, only to be told he is 

"unavailable" until next week. An American priest based in 

Binga and the Apostolic Nuncio have also expressed concern 

about restrictions on church feeding programs. The Nuncio 

intended to inform the Vatican and complain to the Foreign 

Ministry. 

¶3. (C) The disruption of Binga food deliveries is not only a 

Government attempt to control food distribution but it is an 

extension of the Government's hostility toward Catholic and 

other religious institutions critical of the Government's 

human rights abuses, according to Shari Eppel, director of 

Amani Trust/Matabeleland, a widely respected human rights 

organization based in Bulawayo. In addition to the CCJP 

warehouse, the war vets barricaded the Catholic church in 

Binga and prevented the priests there from leaving for 

several days.   Nearly every day, the government-owned 

Bulawayo "Chronicle" comes out with an article blasting 

Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube or the Catholic Church for 

their critical statements, Eppel stated. According to 

another embassy source, the current standoff in Binga may be 

an extension of a long-time feud between local war veterans 

and the CCJP, which drafted the "Breaking the Silence" report 

that exposed the government-ordered "Gukurahundi" massacres 

of the 1980s in which thousands died. 

¶4. (C) When asked about looming starvation in Binga, Eppel 

iterated that food shortages are very serious throughout 

Matabeleland North. Some areas have not received any 

deliveries for three weeks, and CCJP is now a major source of 

food for many people, especially in areas far from Grain 

Marketing Board silos. People are undoubtedly dying, Eppel 

stated, but so far, it is mainly the sick and elderly. It is 

difficult to say whether AIDS, old age, or the lack of food 

is the primary cause of death. "Would they have lived 

another six months or a year had they had access to adequate 

food? It is hard to tell," she said. 

--------------------------------------------- ------- 

GOZ Puts on Poker Face and Sings "I'll Do It My Way" 

--------------------------------------------- ------- 

¶5. (C) In a May 31 meeting with Minister of Public Service, 

Labor and Social Welfare July Moyo (reftel), HIRC staffers 

Pearl Alice Marsh and Malik Chaka posed several pointed 

questions about the root causes and likely GOZ responses to 

the growing food aid crisis. Moyo's responses were 

instructive as to government thinking, or the lack thereof, 

on what should be their number-one policy priority for the 

short term. Moyo sought to keep Zimbabwe in the regional 

herd by noting that all countries in the region are suffering 

to some extent from drought, and he downplayed the role of 

farming disruption caused by the ongoing "fast-track" 

exercise. He noted several times that no farmer had been 

forced from his/her land and deprived of the opportunity to 

produce, an assertion that is patent absurdity when examined 

in the light of corroborated fact. Moyo retreated to 

standard ZANU-PF rhetoric, implying that other versions of 

reality were largely a public relations ploy by Commercial 

Farmers' Union (CFU) members seeking to enlist popular 

support for a land reform effort more to the CFU's liking. 

¶6. (C) True to form, Moyo also saved some criticism for the 

international donor community, characterizing their response 

to the crisis as "low." He acknowledged the severity of the 

crisis and the need for assistance but fell back to the 

position that the GOZ would, absent sufficient outside help, 

do what was necessary to avoid famine and death from 

starvation. He recited the litany of agricultural pipe 

dreams stored in the GOZ's rhetorical pouch - resettler wheat 

production, winter maize, increased agricultural inputs for 

next year - without ever admitting that basic policy reform 

is necessary to reverse the crisis. Moyo did not address the 

potential private sector role in resolving the supply crisis 

and did not link admitted funding constraints caused by forex 

shortages to artificial exchange rates and similar policy 

failures. 

¶7. (C) Challenged to explain Zimbabwe's huge grain deficit 

in comparison to other countries in the region, Moyo 

rationalized that Zimbabwe's "fall" from a relatively better 

position than its neighbors exacerbated this impression. In 

perhaps his most shocking statement, Moyo asserted that a 

more robust humanitarian response by donors would provide the 

GOZ resources to rebuild the country. The sub-text was clear 

- the GOZ wants more donor assistance, but without strings 

and on GOZ terms. The refrain was equally clear - if donor 

assistance under these conditions is not forthcoming, the 

international community will share blame with the GOZ for the 

humanitarian disaster that will follow. 

------- 

Comment 

------- 

¶8. (C) The case of Binga, where the GOZ at best is not 

stopping its supporters from preventing humanitarian food 

relief for the vulnerable for political reasons, is 

especially troubling in the context of the responsible 

minister asserting that as far as donor food relief is 

concerned, it's the GOZ's way or it's the highway. While we 

do not want to read too much into his words, Moyo seemed to 

be implying an unstated strategy of calling the international 

community's bluff by demanding that they deliver food aid on 

GOZ terms or be willing to shoulder the blame for the 

disaster that would follow. The implication of this for USG 

food aid policy in Zimbabwe is profound. It is not in our 

interest to permit starvation to spread, but it is not in our 

power to prevent this if food aid, and the ability to use 

this to punish opposition supporters, is left in the hands of 

a government that to date has shown itself obsessed with 

political vindictiveness and totally indifferent to the 

welfare of the population, fairness, or policy reform. To 

yield to an attempted GOZ bluff might be a palliative measure 

for some, but it would not offer any guarantees for all, and 

in the final analysis it could never be curative absent 

necessary policy reform. From where we stand, it is a bluff 

we must call. 

¶9. (C) Comment continued: For the above reasons, we 

recommend plain speaking now about the reasons for Zimbabwe's 

food crisis, and the need for impartial distribution of all 

food assistance and complementary policy reforms. Unlike its 

neighbors, the GOZ has been unwilling to engage in a 

constructive discussion with donors over how to address the 

emerging crisis. Thus, it is important to maintain a 

distinction between the food crisis in Zimbabwe and that in 

neighboring countries. End comment. 

SULLIVAN

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