Mugabe Suspends CARE Aid is ‘Political Weapon’ of West, He Says

By Celia W. Dugger

Elisabeth Rosenthal contributed reporting from Rome and Graham Bowley contributed from New York.

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The Zimbabwean government has suspended all the humanitarian work of CARE, one of the largest nonprofit groups operating in the country, because of allegations that the group has sided with the opposition in the current election season.

CARE provides assistance to 500,000 of the most vulnerable people in Zimbabwe, including orphans, the sick and the elderly. This month, it would have fed more than 110,000 people in schools, orphanages, old age homes and through other programs.

Speaking at a United Nations food conference in Rome, President Robert Mugabe attacked the activities of nongovernmental organizations and accused the West of conspiring “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,” Mugabe said. “These Western-funded NGOs also use food as a political weapon with which to campaign against government, especially in the rural areas.”

Government officials have accused CARE staff of distributing election pamphlets and encouraging people to vote for the opposition and against ZANU-PF – the governing party that has been in power since 1980 – in advance of a presidential runoff this month. CARE vehemently denies the charges and said the government has not offered any specific evidence to back up the allegations.

CARE was informed of the suspension May 28, and it will remain in place until the government’s investigation of the charges is completed. CARE has told its staff of 300 in Zimbabwe to remain at home pending further notice. Since it began working in Zimbabwe in 1992, CARE has channeled more than $100 million in development assistance and disaster relief to the country.

“CARE has strict policies against political involvement and categorically denies that the organization has encouraged or tolerated any political activity,” said Kenneth Walker, Africa communications manager for CARE International. “Care requested, but has not yet received details of any allegations, including names, dates and locations.”

Since a disputed March 29 presidential election, in which Mugabe came in second to the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, the government has been cracking down widely on many civic and nonprofit groups, as well as the opposition. Civic leaders and aid workers say the restrictions on humanitarian assistance have been increasing in recent days.

The government has been curtailing the operations of nongovernmental organizations in certain areas. The groups affected include Plan International, Save the Children and Mercy Corps, according to aid workers. In the southeastern Chipinge District, for example, the local administrator summoned representatives of nonprofit groups to a brief meeting Monday and informed them that they were to stop all work in the field and remain in their offices until the presidential runoff ends June 27.

In the state-owned newspaper, The Herald, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who was defeated March 29 in his own bid for a seat in Parliament, was quoted as saying that nongovernmental organizations, civic groups, churches and the opposition were working with the British to bring down the government led by Mugabe.

Similarly, Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche was quoted in the Zimbabwe Guardian as saying that other aid groups were being investigated for the same allegations.

“Several other nongovernmental organizations involved in food distribution in Manicaland Province will also be asked to cease operations while we investigate them,” Goche said, according to The Guardian. “There is a crucial runoff coming and our information indicates that NGOs are involved in plans to undermine our candidate.”

The disruption of aid has raised alarm among humanitarian groups, which say that beyond the longstanding economic problems in Zimbabwe, thousands of additional children have been displaced by the political violence of recent months.

In a statement Monday, Unicef said that of the dozens of NGOs it had contacted, more than half had restricted their activities for children “due to threats, requests to do so by authorities or general concern at current uncertainties.”

Not all aid groups report interference by the government, but they are watching the tense political situation closely nonetheless. One group, World Vision, said Tuesday that it had “minimized exposure to risk by maintaining minimal activities in the field and sticking to activities that have little ‘community mobilization.’”

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

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