Zimbabwe clamps down on aid groups

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Zimbabweans — orphans and old people, the sick and the down and out — have lost access to food and other basic humanitarian assistance as their government has clamped down on international-aid groups it says are backing the political opposition, relief agencies say.

In recent days, the government has ordered CARE, one of the largest nonprofit groups working in the country, to suspend operations, which help 500,000 of the most vulnerable Zimbabweans. This month alone, CARE would have fed more than 110,000 people in schools, orphanages, old-age homes and other programs, it said.

But the aid restrictions go far beyond any one group. Muktar Farah, deputy head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe, said Tuesday that millions of people have lost assistance because of what he called "the shrinking of humanitarian space."

"NGOs have been told to scale down or stop operations throughout the country," he said, referring to nongovernmental organizations.

Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, speaking Tuesday at a U.N. food conference in Rome, accused nongovernmental organizations of interfering in politics and contended the West had conspired "to cripple Zimbabwe's economy" and bring about "illegal regime change."

"Funds are being channeled through nongovernmental organizations to opposition political parties, which are a creation of the West," he said. "These Western-funded NGOs also use food as a political weapon with which to campaign against government, especially in the rural areas."

On Friday and Monday, representatives of aid groups were instructed to cease all work in the field until a bitterly contested presidential runoff is held June 27 between Mugabe, in power for 28 years, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Aid workers and human-rights groups say the restrictions are meant to prevent them from witnessing attacks on opposition activists and supporters, often during nighttime raids, amid the government's increasingly violent and deadly crackdown on those it sees as a threat to its hold on power.

The U.N. Children's Fund said Monday that 10,000 children had been displaced by the violence, scores beaten and that some schools had been taken over by pro-government forces and turned into centers of torture.

In a statement, it expressed worry about the welfare of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable and orphaned children, given how many aid groups have restricted their operations "due to threats, requests to do so by authorities or general 'concern at current uncertainties.' "

Zimbabwean political analysts and civic leaders say that Mugabe and ZANU-PF, his governing party, are themselves seeking to use food as a political weapon.

The government recently bought 600,000 tons of corn. By barring NGOs from giving out food in some areas, the governing party controls food distribution and can use it to reward supporters and punish opponents.

Since it began working in Zimbabwe in 1992, CARE has channeled more than $100 million in development and disaster aid.