WASHINGTON (Sapa-AFP) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government is using food as a weapon to hold onto "power at all costs" by denying food aid to opposition supporters, the US ambassador charged Friday.
"This is a very well orchestrated campaign" ahead of the presidential run-off contest on June 27, Ambassador James McGee told reporters in Washington in a video hook-up from Harare, the Zimbabwean capital.
He said members of the ruling ZANU-PF party "can access food through the government," but members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) must turn in their voting or national identity cards "to get food" at ration stations.
"The government will then hold onto these cards until the election is completed and you will not be allowed to vote. The only way you can access food: give up your right to vote," he said.
McGee said the ploy showed that Zimbabwe's leaders are "a bunch of greedy people who want to remain in power at all costs."
He also said more than one million people are affected by Harare's order to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the country to halt their operations over claims of political activism before the presidential run-off.
Although there appear to be enough foreign food stocks to last at least through the elections, Zimbabwe risked "massive, massive starvation" if they are not replenished, he warned.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters later that the Zimbabwean government, which he charged has "wrecked" the country's economy, wants to be the "sole source for any food aid for people."
Its alleged favouritism in distributing the aid to supporters is "cruel in the most sinister kind of way," he added.
It amounts to "using food as a weapon, using the hunger of parents' children against them to prevent them from voting their conscience for a better kind of Zimbabwe," he charged.
In a first round of elections on March 29, Mugabe's party lost its majority in parliament -- for the first time since independence in 1980 -- to the MDC, the main opposition movement.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai also beat Mugabe in the first round, but officially fell short of an outright majority and must face Mugabe in a run-off election at the end of the month.
Asked if he feared for Tsvangirai's life, the ambassador replied: "Given the excesses of the government here, we are not sure what they will do." Tsvangirai, who was beaten unconscious while in police custody in March last year, was forced Friday to halt campaigning after being detained by police twice this week.
McGee said the actions were blatantly illegal. "It's contrary to Zimbabwe's constitution, it's absolutely illegal, it's contrary to all the agreements Zimbabwe has signed regionally...It goes against international law," McGee said.
McGee said regional power South Africa must do more to get "a strong, strong response" from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union which should send in large numbers of election observers.
President Thabo Mbeki has been criticized for his silence.
McGee said the elections must go ahead as planned, otherwise it will give the "Mugabe regime a victory that they do not deserve."
