US embassy cable - 05HARARE1155

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 001155 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR B. NEULING 
SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE 
ROME PLEASE PASS TO FODAG 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/19/2015 
TAGS: EAID, ECON, PGOV, PHUM, PREL, ZI, Economic Situation 
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR HALL SURVEYS EMPTY BREADBASKET 
 
REF: HARARE 001019 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Eric T Schultz under Section 1.4 
 b/d 
 
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Summary 
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1.  (C) During his August 11-13 visit to Zimbabwe, Ambassador 
Tony Hall witnessed firsthand the food insecurity caused by 
the GOZ,s misguided agricultural policies and recurring 
drought, and the destruction caused by Operation Restore 
Order.  UN representatives told Ambassador Hall a GOZ appeal 
for direct aid was unlikely but WFP had included 300,000 MT 
for Zimbabwe in its regional appeal for southern Africa.  The 
WFP told Ambassador Hall that as many as 5 million people 
could need food assistance this year.  The FAO told 
Ambassador Hall that Zimbabwe had been importing enough food 
over the past two months to cover the shortfall, but 
questioned the sustainability of this trend given the 
economy,s marked decline.  Ambassador Hall spoke to some 
Restore Order victims who told him they were in &survival 
mode.8  However, he was denied entry to another set of 
victims at Hopely Farm, south of Harare.  In a statement 
issued before his departure (emailed to AF/S), Ambassador 
Hall announced that the United States was donating $51.8 
million, or 73,500 MT of food assistance, to the WFP,s 
appeal for southern Africa. End Summary. 
 
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UN Agencies Paint Bleak Picture 
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2. (C) Ambassador Hall began his three-day visit with a 
briefing by UN agencies on their humanitarian response to 
Zimbabwe,s on-going food insecurity as well as their efforts 
to provide relief to the victims of Operation Restore Order. 
UNDP Resrep Agostinho Zacarias noted that the GOZ was 
lukewarm about humanitarian activities and was suspicious of 
the international community, especially international NGOs, 
which it believed had a &regime change8 agenda.  This made 
conducting relief efforts very difficult, in particular it 
had impeded humanitarian access to Zimbabweans in need. 
Nonetheless, the needs in the country were real and the UN 
and its sister agencies were committed to working with the 
GOZ to address them. 
 
3. (C) Zacharias said that in addition to food assistance 
activities, the UN was working with the GOZ on a humanitarian 
response to Operation Restore Order.  The UN and the GOZ had 
created two joint working groups to coordinate the response. 
He said he hoped that the experience of working together 
would lead to greater cooperation in the future.  The UN and 
the GOZ were finalizing a joint &flash8 appeal to assist 
the victims of Operation Restore Order, which should be 
released soon.  The appeal would be for USD 30 million 
through the end of the year and would address the need for 
shelter, food, water, and sanitation.  He said the government 
had agreed to allocate plots of land with security of tenure 
to displaced families and that IOM planned to provide tents 
to these families until new homes could be built. 
 
4.  (C) WFP Country Director Kevin Farrell repeated earlier 
WFP reports to Ambassador Hall that a direct GOZ request for 
food assistance was unlikely.  Farrell said WFP had 
reluctantly accepted this reality and had folded Zimbabwe,s 
needs into a reworked regional appeal for southern Africa 
that totals 745,000 MT.  Of the 300,000 MT envisioned for 
Zimbabwe, Farrell reported that WFP had already secured 
70,000 MT.  However, the pipeline would run dry in October 
and more pledges were needed.  He told the Ambassador that 
the lack of a formal GOZ aid request was not hampering 
operations and that WFP and the GOZ were close to an 
agreement that would allow WFP,s traditional NGO partners to 
distribute food assistance without interference.  WFP 
Regional Director Michael Sackett reported that Zimbabwe had 
the region,s most pressing food situation, but acknowledged 
that GOZ stonewalling and chronic food needs in neighboring 
Malawi, Zambia, and southern Mozambique could dampen donor 
enthusiasm for aiding Zimbabwe. 
 
5. (C) Farrell told Ambassador Hall that the GOZ,s food 
security assessment had indicated that 2.9 million people, or 
36 percent of the rural population, would need assistance. 
However, he said the assessment was based on unrealistically 
optimistic assumptions (reftel).  WFP had relaxed the 
assumptions and produced a higher estimate of 5 million 
people needing food, or 62 percent of the rural population. 
 
6.  (C) The UN representatives collectively questioned the 
GOZ,s ability to finance food imports, given the country,s 
economic deterioration and foreign exchange shortages.  FAO 
Country Director Geoffrey Mrema cited South African data that 
show grain exports to Zimbabwe measured 210,121 MT between 
May 1 and July 22, in addition to estimated imports of 20,000 
MT from Mozambique during the same period.  Mrema, however, 
questioned whether these imports, which average 19,200 MT per 
week, were sustainable. 
 
 
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Viewing Restore Order,s Devastation 
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7.    (C) Ambassador Hall visited Hatcliff Farm, a 
residential area outside Harare that had been destroyed by 
Operation Restore Order, on August 11.  During the 1990s, the 
area was used to resettle people from one of Harare,s worst 
slums.  A joint World Bank/USAID program had provided the 
area with water and sanitation infrastructure.  The GOZ 
provided residents valid leases for the land at the time of 
resettlement.  Despite these legal documents, the houses were 
bulldozed and their occupants forcibly removed.  Residents 
told the Ambassador how police with dogs arrived without 
notice to drive them out.  After a USAID protest, some people 
have been allowed to return.  However, residents told 
Ambassador Hall they were in &survival mode,8 without 
shelter, warm clothing, food, or access to water and 
sanitation during the coldest months of Zimbabwe,s winter. 
 
8.  (C) On his last day in country, August 13, Ambassador 
Hall also attempted to visit Hopely Farm, a holding camp run 
by the military for people displaced by Operation Restore 
Order.  However, he was denied entry, ostensibly because IOM 
had failed to secure the necessary permission from the 
Ministry of Information for the visit to proceed. 
Ironically, while negotiating with the individuals in charge 
of the camp, Ambassador Hall watched a truck off-loading U.S. 
food assistance.  The Ambassador was told in confidence by 
someone at the site that conditions were grim and that &old 
people8 were dying at the camp. 
 
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NGOs Report Government Obstruction 
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9.  (C) During a USAID-hosted roundtable, Ambassador Hall 
heard from NGOs a laundry list of government obstructionism 
that has hampered their relief operations.  C-Safe, a 
consortium of relief NGOs operating in southern Africa, 
reported that it had more than 10,000 MT of food destined for 
Zimbabwe sitting in Durban awaiting GOZ clearance.  Some NGOs 
reported they had failed for the past year to get import 
permits. (N.B. USAID plans to relay details of these import 
difficulties to Minister Goche, who said he was unaware of 
any problems but promised during his meeting with Ambassador 
Hall that his staff would look into them.)  The NGOs noted 
the GOZ also complicated distribution within Zimbabwe; one 
group reported that in the past year it had been able to 
distribute only half of its 20,000 MT stock. 
 
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Mutare Visit Highlights UN Successes 
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10.  (SBU) On August 12, Ambassador Hall and his delegation 
traveled to eastern Zimbabwe to visit examples of successful 
WFP and FAO projects that address the needs of persons living 
with or affected by HIV and AIDS.  At the first location near 
Mutare, the Ambassador saw WFP and American NGO Africare 
distribute food to more than 3,000 families, often through 
home care givers because the family members were too ill to 
travel to the distribution location.  Ambassador Hall 
accompanied one care-giver who was delivering rations to a 
widow and to an orphan who was caring for four younger 
siblings.  Ambassador Hall then traveled to an FAO project 
near Rusape that helped farmers grow vegetables by providing 
drip irrigation kits, a technology originally pioneered in 
Zimbabwe by USAID. 
 
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Comment 
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11.  (C) The GOZ,s ability to scrape together enough foreign 
exchange to pay for food imports remains the question of the 
day, especially as the hunger season of September through 
April approaches and local and WFP reserves dwindle.  What is 
unfortunately clear after the Ambassador,s visit is that 
only a major interruption in food imports would cause the GOZ 
to ask for aid directly.  The Ambassador,s visit did help 
demonstrate to the Zimbabwean people U.S. resolve to provide 
assistance to them via WFP,s regional appeal and smaller, 
but nonetheless important bilateral deliveries, regardless of 
their own government,s irresponsible behavior. 
 
12. (U) USUN Rome cleared this message. 
SCHULTZ