WASHINGTON—The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe accused President Robert Mugabe's government on Friday of illegally using food aid as a weapon to get votes in the country's run-off election on June 27.
"That is exactly what is happening," Ambassador James McGee said in a video conference call from Harare, when asked if the government was using food as a weapon.
"We are dealing with a desperate regime here which will do anything to stay in power," he added.
McGee told Washington-based reporters that if potential voters wanted food aid they had to show their voting cards, which indicated whether they belonged to Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party or the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"If you have an MDC card, you can receive food but first you have to give the national identity card to the government officials, which means they will hold onto it until after the election. Again, you will not be able to vote," he said.
Supporters of the ruling party were allowed to hold onto their identity cards and so were free to vote in the election. Mugabe has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980.
"The only way you can access food is to give up your right to vote," said McGee. "It is absolutely illegal."
On Thursday, Mugabe's government suspended the work of all international aid agencies in the southern African country, saying some of them were campaigning for the opposition.
McGee condemned the move and said while there appeared to be enough food aid in stock until the election, he predicted "massive, massive starvation" after the poll as supplies ran out.
On Thursday, five U.S. and two British diplomats were detained at a police roadblock about 50 miles (80 km) outside the capital, Harare, in an incident that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called "outrageous behavior."
Feeds