Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe agreed in a September 15 power-sharing accord to form a government of national unity with opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
Analysts see such a power-sharing government as the first step to ending decade-long food shortages and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
But six weeks after agreeing to share power the rival political leaders are yet to form a unity government because they cannot agree on who should control the most powerful ministries in the proposed new administration. Â
“While the parties continue to negotiate on political details, the most vulnerable Zimbabweans are at further risk of extreme hunger. Many Zimbabweans are now only surviving by eating wild fruit,” Simeon Mawanza, the international rights group’s expert on Zimbabwe, said in a press statement.
Mawanza lamented the factor that power-sharing negotiations had not focused on gross human rights violations during Zimbabwe’s violence-marred June second round presidential election that was won by Mugabe.
“We are worried that human rights have not been at the centre of the negotiation process,” said Mawanza.
Tsvangirai, who defeated Mugabe in the first round presidential election but pulled out of the decisive second round vote because of political violence, says more than 100 members of his MDC party were killed and thousands others displaced by government security agents during the run-up to the June 27 poll.
Mugabe denies his ZANU party or government orchestrated violence and instead accuses the MDC of committing violence in a bid to tarnish his government.
Amnesty said the election-related violence had worsened the food crisis because many victims were farmers who were too badly injured to till their land during the coming rainy season.
“If we think the food situation in Zimbabwe is bad now, just wait until the end of this year when half of the population is likely to need aid,” Mawanza said.
Amnesty’s warning on worsening hunger in Zimbabwe comes as international food agencies operating in the country report that thousands of families in the southern African country were fast running out of food with many now surviving on just one meal a day.
Several families in some of the worst affected districts were surviving on wild roots and fruits because they have nothing else to eat, according to aid groups.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) about three weeks ago called on international donors to make available US$140 million in emergency food supplies in order to prevent Zimbabwe’s food shortages from deteriorating into a disaster.
The WFP expects hunger to worsen around January 2009 when an estimated 5.1 million Zimbabweans or about 45 percent of the country’s 12 million population will require food aid to avoid starvation.
Zimbabwe’s power-sharing deal retains Mugabe as president while making Tsvangirai prime minister and Mutambara deputy prime minister. The bare bones agreement allots 15 Cabinet posts to ZANU PF party, 13 to the MDC and three to a faction of the opposition led by Mutambara.
However it is silent about who gets which specific posts and the rival parties have since the signing of the agreement wrangled over who should control the most powerful ministries such as defence, finance and home affairs. – ZimOnlin
Post published in: News