U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa

Tel: +27 11 880 4633
Fax: +27 11 880 1421
e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 64
23 - 29 March 2002


CONTENTS

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Food crisis stalks the region
MADAGASCAR: More bloodshed feared
ANGOLA: Edging towards peace
ZIMBABWE: Access to food aid politicised says lobby group
ZAMBIA: EU ties aid to constitutional reforms


SOUTHERN AFRICA: Food crisis stalks the region

Southern Africa is facing critical food shortages and the World Food
Programme (WFP) says it urgently needs almost US $70 million to provide
food for 2.6 million people.

"Natural disasters and high maize prices have forced hundreds of thousands
of people throughout the region to rely on food aid for survival," the
agency said in a donor alert released on Tuesday. It said people were
particularly at risk in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In Mozambique, where the government is still struggling to cope with the
effects of flooding during 2000 and 2001, a recent dry spell has hurt the
current agricultural season. WFP and the government's National Disaster
Management Institute (INGC) told IRIN on Monday that food security in the
southern, central and western provinces of Gaza, Inhambane and Tete had
worsened. WFP said it was assisting about 62,000 people in Tete alone.

But the region's food crisis is not only weather related. Swaziland's
current need for unprecedented levels of food aid is rooted in outmoded
land usage and a lack of a national population policy, social scientists
and aid workers told IRIN this week.


MADAGASCAR: More bloodshed feared

The week in Madagascar ended with the European Commission demanding that
roadblocks which have starved the opposition-held capital Antananarivo of
fuel and other vital supplies for weeks must be lifted. On Wednesday,
Antananarivo's military governor resigned, dealing yet another blow to
President Didier Ratsiraka's government. Gen. Leon Claude Raveloarison
said he feared that if no resolution was found soon to the political
crisis, more bloodshed would follow. Raveloarison had been employed by
Ratsiraka to enforce martial law in the capital after Marc Ravalomanana
proclaimed himself president last month.

On Wednesday at least four people were killed in clashes with the
military. Twenty-eight people were injured on Tuesday when security forces
and opposition supporters clashed in the town of Fianarantsoa, about 300
km south of Antananarivo. Protestors were accompanying self-declared
president Ravalomanana's recent appointment - a provincial governor - to
the incumbent governor's house when the shooting occurred.

Meanwhile on Monday, soldiers loyal to Ratsiraka descended on the national
parliamentary complex in the capital, where Ravalomanana has installed his
cabinet. In response, opposition supporters set up barricades in the
streets, foiling the attempt to seize control of the building.


ANGOLA: Edging towards peace

While Madagascar slides towards chaos, Angola edges towards peace. Talks
between government military officials and rebel UNITA commanders resumed
on Monday with a denial from a UNITA general that his colleagues had been
taken captive by the government.

A diplomatic source based in Luanda told IRIN that General Jose Samuel
Tchiwale dismissed statements by UNITA's external commission that those
involved in peace talks in Moxico province were effectively prisoners. He
said the external commission was not well informed about what was
happening inside the country and UNITA inside the country would have to
take responsibility for informing them.

The UN Security Council on Thursday urged UNITA to seize the opportunity
to end three decades of civil war. It also said it was ready to consider
lifting travel sanctions for senior UNITA officials, the UN news service
reported.

Applauding a recent declaration by the government on its willingness to
resume the peace process, the Security Council on Thursday called on UNITA
"to recognise the historic nature of this opportunity to end the conflict
with dignity, to give a clear, positive response to the government's offer
of peace, to implement fully the Lusaka Protocol and to re-enter political
life."

Meanwhile, international law enforcement agencies have been handed a
dossier alleging that millions of dollars of Angola's petroleum revenue
have been embezzled. Lobby group Global Witness told IRIN on Tuesday that
it had forwarded information regarding the alleged embezzlement to law
enforcement agencies in the United States and Europe.


ZIMBABWE: Access to food aid politicised says lobby group

Amid reports of widespread hunger, the government on Thursday dismissed
allegations that access to food aid had been politicised.

In its report titled 'Zimbabwe At The Crossroads: Transition or Conflict',
the International Crisis Group (ICG) alleged that "maize imports were, and
are, directed first to areas of greatest support for the ruling party".
Edward Mamutse, a government spokesman in Zimbabwe's Department of
Information and Publicity told IRIN that the government would "devise a
scheme to send food right round the country."

Meanwhile, with inflation topping 100 percent, the local currency tumbling
and over three million people in danger of going hungry, local
industrialists and analysts are divided on the knock-on effects Zimbabwe's
economic meltdown will have on the Southern African region.

"It is difficult to assess what all of this means just yet because of the
deliberate disinformation and the poor quality of official data. Although,
economic sense suggests that if the Zimbabwe economy collapses, it does
not necessarily threaten the region. This is not to say that there won't
be any long-term ramifications of what is going on in Zimbabwe now," Tony
Hawkins, professor of economics at the University of Harare, told IRIN on
Wednesday.


ZAMBIA: EU ties aid to constitutional reforms

The European Parliament on Wednesday allayed fears of punitive action
against Zambia over governance concerns in the wake of controversial
elections last December, but said it expected reforms to strengthen the
country's fragile democracy.

The European Union also expected the courts to "expeditiously" deal with
three electoral petitions challenging the conduct of the presidential
poll. Three opposition parties - United Party for National Development
(UPND), Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) and Heritage Party -
claim that the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) rigged the
poll in favour of its candidate, Levy Mwanawasa, who is now president.

Meanwhile, analysts have suggested that the resignation on Monday of
Frederick Chiluba as leader of the ruling Movement for Multiparty
Democracy (MMD) will open the way for newly-elected President Levy
Mwanawasa to consolidate control of the divided party.

Chiluba's presidency of MMD has been seen by observers and analysts alike
as the main reason behind growing divisions in the ruling party. Since the
27 December election the MMD appeared to have split into two camps - one
loyal to Chiluba, who briefly flirted with the idea of running for an
unconstitutional third term, the other aligned with Mwanawasa, Chiluba's
hand-picked successor.


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