PROPOSAL TO PRESS THE GOZ MORE EFFECTIVELY TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 HARARE 002624

SIPDIS

FOR AF/FO KANSTEINER AND BELLAMY,AF/S, AND IO
NSC FOR SR. AFRICA ADVISER JENDAYII FRAZER
AID/W FOR AFR: NEWMAN, AFR/SA,DCHA/FFP, DCHA/OFDA,
ROME FOR FODAG: AMB HALL AND TLAVELLE
NAIROBI DCHA/OFDA
LONDO FOR GURNEY
PARIS FOR NEARY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2007
TAGS: EAID ZI
SUBJECT: PROPOSAL TO PRESS THE GOZ MORE EFFECTIVELY TO
COOPERATE ON FOOD ASSISTANCE

REF: A. (A) HARARE 2529


B. (B) HARARE 2496

C. (C) HARARE 2403

Classified By: JOSEPH G. SULLIVAN FOR REASONS 1.5B/D


1. Summary: The suspension of international food deliveries
to two locations, GOZ foot-dragging in the GOZ's dealings
with international donors and documented reports of
politicization of GOZ-controlled food stocks provides ample
proof that the GOZ continues to place ZANU-PF political
interests ahead of the well-being of the Zimbabwean
population. Ex-commercial farm workers have been especially
hard hit by this cynical policy. UNSYG Kofi Annan has been
at the forefront of growing international condemnation of GOZ
manipulation of food as a political tool. Barring other
effective leverage to move the Mugabe Government from its
current course, we think the best USG tactic would be to push
for a UNSC session that focuses on the humanitarian emergency
in Zimbabwe. Using this platform to highlight GOZ efforts to
politicize food delivery might be the best way to pressure
the GOZ into getting more food to the neediest Zimbabweans,
irrespective of political considerations. End Summary

GOZ Efforts to Politicize International Food Assistance
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2. (C) GOZ response to the country's humanitarian emergency
continues to place the well-being of its own people secondary
to the interests of the ruling ZANU-PF. It is still largely
true that international food assistance has not been diverted
for political purposes because of objective World Food
Program(WFP) controls over, and NGO implementation of, food
distribution. The two most significant exceptions to this
have been in the extremely poor district of Binga in
Matabeleland North, where war veterans and government
officials have cut off food deliveries on two occasions in
the last six months. The most recent cutoff came after Binga
residents voted in favor of the opposition MDC in rural
council elections and has already persisted almost eight
weeks. Only twelve days after the Government told donors that
Save the Children(UK) would be authorized to resume food
distribution in Binga did Minister July Moyo sign the
document authorizing this resumption. In Insiza district in
Matabeleland South, seizure of WFP food by ZANU-PF militants
in the course of a parliamentary bi-election campaign led to
a WFP cutoff of food deliveries to the district, and all
subsequent discussions have failed to secure Government
agreement to recognize the fault, replace the stolen three
metric tons of food and provide assurances for the future
that would be necessary for WFP to resume food deliveries.

Other GOZ (In)Actions Slowing International Food Assistance
-------------- --------------

3.(C) Of greater overall impact in limiting the amount of
food assistance has been the GOZ's slow response to the WFP
and international donors. The GOZ insisted on a laborious
NGO registration of or, in many cases, re-authorization
process for NGO's to be able to carry out food distribution
for the WFP or bilaterally. This clearance process included
rigorous and time-consuming Central Intelligence Organization
clearances that so slowed the ability of NGO's to staff up
and organize as to assure that WFP will be unable to meet its
target distribution of 55,000 metric tons by the most
critical months of November and December. On top of this has
been the GOZ's divided and protracted response to the GM/BT
food issue. Following the mid-July letter to USAID A/A
Winter from Labor and Social Affairs Minister July Moyo
accepting US yellow maize through a swap arrangement,
different Ministers of the GOZ flip-flopped several times on
the issue before taking a Cabinet decision in early September
to accept GM/BT maize. Even then, the Agriculture
Ministry/Grain Marketing Board (GMB) seems to have
slow-tracked the formal agreement with GMB for about four
weeks. Thereafter, the issue of labeling donated maize raised
by the Bio-safety Board cost additional time, but the Board
demonstrated substantial flexibility in addressing this
issue. Nonetheless, it is only now that we are at the point
of having US maize distributed through WFP channels, many
months after this could have happened.

GOZ Intentions and Explanations
--------------


4. (C) We know from inside sources that the GOZ has the
intention to manipulate international food assistance for its
partisan political benefit, although we believe that WFP
controls have minimized the GOZ's ability to achieve this
goal. We also know that the GOZ intends to maintain GOZ/GMB
predominance in delivering food to the population so that it
can distribute GMB food in a way which benefits ZANU/PF's
political agenda. GOZ limitations on, and delays in
international food assistance coming into the country served
GOZ objectives to maintain GMB predominance in food delivery
to the population and concomitantly, the population's
dependence on the Government. Because of the slow startup in
international assistance, only now is the balance beginning
to shift toward an international food assistance balance of
close to half the basic food deliveries to the population.
In addition, of course, the GOZ has maintained its adamant
position of taking no steps to facilitate the private
sector's ability to alleviate the food shortage, which would
diminish by definition the GOZ's ability to use food as a
weapon.

5.(C) The GOZ has utilized obfuscation, delay and outright
lies to mask its actions and objectives. Foreign Minister
Mudenge, for example, told his South African counterpart at
the recent binational commission meetings that the Insiza
incident was caused by ZANU-PF militants' reaction to an MDC
conspiracy with the distributing ORAP NGO to divert the WFP
food to MDC supporters -- this notwithstanding his having in
hand WFP documentation of ZANU-PF seizure of food with police
complicity. Minister July Moyo was only a bit less
duplicitous in dealing with donors on the Insiza issue in
claiming that it was the result of a complex set of two-sided
political arm-wrestling and therefore did not merit an
unambiguous WFP or Government response.

GOZ manipulation of its own Food Distribution
--------------

6.(C) With respect to Government-purchased food, the GOZ has
been blatant in its politicization of GMB food. Since food
is sold at a highly subsidized and readily affordable price,
the key issues are where this food is delivered and who has
the right to purchase it. It is not true that the
Matabeleland or the cities -- all MDC strongholds -- have
been deprived of all Government food, but the ability of WFP
or the international community to track the fairness of GOZ
food distribution has been quite limited. Instead, we have
some documentation from Zimbabwean organizations of the
degree to which individual communities are benefited (such as
Insiza) or prejudiced, depending on their support for ZANU.
We also have frequent accounts of those seeking to buy food
being required to produce ZANU membership cards or other
proof of ZANU loyalty in order to purchase GMB maize. In
discussing these issues with international donors, the GOZ
has been anything but transparent. Notwithstanding President
Mugabe's pledge to WFP Director Morris in September that all
food of whatever provenance should be distributed on a
non-partisan basis, the GOZ has never coordinated GMB
deliveries effectively with the WFP. Minister July Moyo
handles this issue cleverly in his meetings with donors,
acknowledging that "some" politicization and corruption
occurs, but claims it to be contrary to policy. He even
invites donors to report any problems to him, knowing that
such verification efforts are beyond the capacity of the UN
and the donors.


Ex-Commercial Farm Workers Largely Ignored
--------------

7.(C) As reported in ref c, the GOZ has shown virtually no
genuine interest in assisting former commercial farm workers
with food or humanitarian assistance, although it has
recently submitted a formal request to the UN to assist in
providing assistance to this group, although not as a
privileged group. In fact, the GOZ has participated in the
massive dislocation of this group, often to the fringes and
most desolate parts of the country. Commercial farm workers
are understandably intimidated and reluctant to identify
themselves. Efforts by the UN and this Embassy to interview
displaced and needy commercial farm workers on the outskirts
of Harare were met by violent intervention of war veterans
(ref A),whose actions the GOZ has yet to repudiate or
punish.
International Reaction to Politicization of Food Assistance
-------------- --------------


8. (C) The US and other donors and the WFP and the UN,
including the UNSYG, have spoken out on numerous occasions
against the politicization of food assistance. The most
recent statement was by UNSYG Kofi Annan last week when he
endorsed the WFP policy against the politicization of food
assistance. "The Secretary General notes the continuing
reports of politicization in food distribution and
humanitarian assistance in general." "Those distributing aid
have an obligation to ensure that it is given to
beneficiaries based on their needs and not upon political
affiliation" "The Secretary General fully supports the zero
tolerance policy on the politicization of food distribution
established by the World Food Program." " He appeals to the
Government of Zimbabwe to ensure that political
considerations do not affect food aid efforts within the
country." With donor assistance, the UN has established an
OCHA position to identify and assist needy ex-commercial farm
workers and another Unit to verify that food assistance is
reaching the neediest Zimbabweans and to examine allegations
of improper distribution of food assistance. The UN believes
it has the mandate to examine distribution of food provided
by the WFP, that provided bilaterally, and also that provided
by the GOZ. Comment: We think the first two mandates are
achievable and will help relieve the pressures from several
sides on the NGO's carrying out food distribution. However,
the UN will be very hard pressed in the face of likely
minimal cooperation from the GOZ to constrain continued
Government politicization of its own food deliveries.
Similarly, as exemplified in the previous para, UN and our
efforts on the ground to find and assist ex-commercial farm
workers will be difficult in the face of Government
disinterest and active measures to the contrary.

Comment: What to do ?
--------------


9. Some local NGO's have proposed cutting off all food
deliveries in retaliation for GOZ political manipulation of
food. Other NGO's and some political opposition leaders have
proposed massive flooding of the country with food. Both of
these options sound attractive, but are unlikely to be
effective in practice. Cutting off all international food
assistance would only make the situation of the population
more desperate and would be unlikely to motivate the GOZ to
change its behavior. Instead, the GOZ's ability to control
to whom and under what conditions even scarcer food would be
accentuated and the GOZ would be quick to blame the
international community for resulting famine among those who
are not ruling party supporters. Flooding the country with
food would only be possible through use of force(unlikely) or
by securing greater government cooperation by providing the
food for distribution directly by the
government(undesirable.)

Comment continued: UNSC Focus on Humanitarian
Assistance to Zimbabwe
--------------



10. While we defer to experts on the limits of the possible,
we assume, based on similar experiences with respect to
Angola, that it would be possible to have a UNSC session
convened to focus on the humanitarian emergency in Zimbabwe
(if necessary, as part of a broader examination of the
Southern African emergency. At such a session, the UN
Secretariat, OCHA, WFP and others could be called upon to

SIPDIS
report on the dimensions of the humanitarian emergency and
efforts to deal with it. One of the issues which should
receive ample focus at such a conference should be GOZ
efforts to politicize food delivery, and what needs be done
by the GOZ to provide food for all its citizens on the basis
of need rather than political criteria. We would assume that
a UNSC statement or resolution which focused on this problem
in a clear way would be achievable, even if outright
condemnation of GOZ practices would be unlikely. While less
than a "home run," there would be some positive impact to
such an outcome. Most importantly, the GOZ would be likely
to seek to clean up its act, perhaps even in advance of a
UNSC session, in an effort to avoid condemnation, thus
helping more food get to more of the people who most need it.
The UNSC action would also provide a point of continuing
reference to press for future GOZ cooperation and
non-politicization of humanitarian assistance. Finally, the
UNSC discussion and eventual statement would help make it
clear to Zimbabweans and the world that GOZ politicization of
food to its own citizens was a fact, and one of serious
international concern.
SULLIVAN