US embassy cable - 02HARARE2472

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 002472 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USAID/W FOR DCHA/OFDA, DCHA/FFP, DCHA/OTI, AFR/SA FOR POE 
AND COPSON AND AFR/SD 
 
STATE FOR AF/S DELISI AND RAYNOR 
 
NAIROBI FOR DCHA/OFDA/ARO AND REDSO/ESA/FFP 
 
GENEVA PLEASE PASS TO UNOCHA, IFRC 
 
PRETORIA FOR USAID/DCHA/FFP AND DCHA/OFDA 
 
ROME PLEASE PASS TO FODAG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PREL, US, ZI 
SUBJECT:  U.N. DONOR MEETING WITH GOZ MINISTERS OF HEALTH 
AND SOCIAL WELFARE 
REFS:   HARARE 2422 
 
1. Summary: On November 6, Ambassador Sullivan and A/USAID 
Director attended a meeting, hosted and chaired by the U.N. 
Humanitarian Co-ordinator (HC) to Zimbabwe (J. Victor 
Angelo), between major donor country representatives and key 
Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) officials on the worsening 
humanitarian crisis in the country.  The meeting was well 
attended by Chiefs of Mission and senior representatives of 
most major donor countries to Zimbabwe.  Key GOZ 
participants included Minister of Labor, Public Works and 
Social Welfare July Moyo and Minister of Health and Child 
Welfare Dr. David Parirenyatwa.  At the outset, both 
ministers thanked donor representatives for their countries' 
assistance to date, discussed the country crisis and 
response, and concluded with a list of areas of additional 
need.  These initial statements provided little new 
information, largely reiterating information presented in 
prior documentation on these subjects.  Most of the 
subsequent questions and answers covered similarly familiar 
topics, with the ministers' responses also largely echoing 
past exchanges on these subjects.  Meeting highlights 
included a testy exchange on the "Insiza (World Food 
Programme (WFP) food seizure) incident" which remains 
unresolved, and a coerced announcement that the government 
had agreed to allow Save the Children Federation to resume 
food assistance activities in Binga and Nyaminyami 
Districts.  At the conclusion, all present concurred that it 
had been a useful exchange, and agreed to continue to 
participate in future such meetings on a regular basis. 
This meeting represents an initial attempt by HC Angelo to 
promote a more direct dialogue on humanitarian issues 
between the government and donors.  (Angelo clearly took 
advantage of donor expressions of concern to press the GOZ.) 
The Mission remains sceptical that this new venue will prove 
any more effective than past similar U.N.-brokered 
initiatives at dialogue with the GOZ.  However, the Mission 
will continue to participate, if for no other reason than it 
provides us with a useful venue to put forth our points to 
government on the increasingly desperate situation, and our 
increasingly frustrated efforts to respond to it.  End 
Summary. 
 
2.  On November 6, Ambassador Sullivan and A/USAID Director 
attended a meeting, hosted and chaired by the U.N. 
Humanitarian Co-ordinator to Zimbabwe (J. Victor Angelo), 
between major donor country representatives and key GOZ 
officials on the worsening humanitarian crisis in the 
country.  The meeting was the first of a planned series of 
regular such donor-government meetings, in a new HC 
initiative to promote a more direct dialogue between the two 
groups.  The meeting was well attended by Chiefs of Mission 
and senior representatives of most major donor countries to 
Zimbabwe.  GOZ participants included Minister of Labor, 
Public Works and Social Welfare July Moyo, Minister of 
Health and Child Welfare Dr. David Parirenyatwa, and 
associated ministry staff. 
 
3. The meeting started with statements by both ministers 
that thanked donor representatives for their countries' 
assistance to date, discussed the country crisis and 
response, and concluded with a list of areas of additional 
need.  These rather lengthy initial statements provided 
little new information, largely reiterating information 
presented in prior documentation on these subjects 
(especially the September Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment 
Committee (VAC) report and the U.N.'s Consolidated Appeal 
(CAP) for Zimbabwe - see Reftel). 
 
4.  Most of the subsequent questions and answers (Q&A) 
covered similarly familiar topics, such as the plight of the 
ex-commercial farm workers, NGO registration/approval 
(Germany), politicization of food aid (Sweden, U.S.), 
improved program transparency, information-sharing and 
coordination (especially regarding GOZ/Grain Marketing Board 
(GMB) food aid and sales activities - Britain, U.S.), and 
several statements on respective country contributions to 
date to the humanitarian crisis by the U.S., British and the 
EU.   The ministers' responses to these questions also 
largely echoed past exchanges on these subjects.  Major 
points of this Q&A included: 
- ex-commercial farm workers could not be singled out for 
special treatment; rather, they must be treated the same as 
others with "no discrimination" within a given area(GOZ). 
As long as this principle was adhered to, there would be no 
problem with assistance to this target group.  In this 
regard, Moyo mentioned the GOZ's current UN-supported effort 
to survey farm workers nationwide to get a better idea of 
their numbers, locations, conditions and needs.  [Note:  A 
review of the draft Terms of Reference for this survey 
reveals that the real purpose behind this survey is to 
determine the status of payment of retrenchment packages for 
these workers, presumably so that additional pressure can 
placed on commercial farmers (and Britain?) to own up to 
this government-imposed responsibility.  End Note.] 
- many of the current problems with coordination and 
purported "politicization" of humanitarian assistance 
resulted from NGO activities that were not duly approved by 
central government or implemented through 
accepted/established local government structures.  Hence, 
all programs must be reviewed and approved by central 
government, and implemented through established local 
structures to avoid these problems.  Government would 
continue its best efforts to enlist the support of 
additional NGOs, who followed these procedures, to assist in 
the relief effort. 
- "politicization of assistance" was an "emotional" and 
"highly distorted" issue due to the current polarized 
political environment.  Hence, there was a need for prompt 
reporting and joint investigation of reported incidents to 
ensure that the facts were ascertained, "false" reports were 
quickly quashed and appropriate corrective measures could be 
effected in a timely manner. 
- good information and coordination of government programs 
(especially the GMB) was hampered by various operational 
constraints, such as unpredictability of supplies, 
logistical bottlenecks, etc.  However, within these 
constraints, government would endeavour to provide better 
information on their program operations in the interest of 
avoiding duplication and maximizing the effectiveness of 
limited aid resources. 
- major new donor commitments noted included the long- 
awaited arrival of some $26 million in critical medicines, 
and the provision of additional equipment and supplies to 
the country's central blood transfusion unit - both by the 
EU. 
 
5.   Meeting highlights included a brief and testy exchange 
on the "Insiza incident", where approximately 3 MT of WFP 
food commodities (including some U.S.-donated vegetable oil) 
were seized by ruling party supporters in several wards in 
the run-up to the recent Parliamentary by-election in this 
district.  In response to the U.S. Ambassador's query on the 
status of this issue, following HC Angelo's confirmation 
that WFP food distributions remained suspended in this 
district, Minister Moyo indicated the results of his 
personal investigations into these incidents, characterizing 
them as "complicated" and unfortunate "errors of judgement." 
In response to the Ambassador's query on plans for the 
restitution of the stolen commodities, the Minister stated 
that it was better not to dwell on restitution (read 
"retribution") for past mistakes, but rather to move forward 
with "lessons learned" for avoiding such incidents in the 
future.   It was clear following this exchange that this 
issue remains unresolved, much to the chagrin of the GOZ and 
their party supporters within this district. (On the weekend 
following this meeting, State media claimed that agreement 
had been reached to resume food deliveries in Insiza, a 
claim rebutted by HC who told the Ambassador that issues of 
restitution must be addressed as well as correct 
acknowledgement by GOZ of the source of the cutoff.) 
 
6. Near the end of the meeting, Minister Moyo announced an 
agreement by all levels of government to allow Save the 
Children Federation (SCF/UK) to resume food distribution and 
supplementary feeding activities in Binga and Nyaminyami 
Districts, following an almost two-month cessation for 
"political reasons" after the local government elections at 
end-August.  It is significant to note, however, that 
Minister Moyo only made this welcome announcement under 
pressure from HC Angelo.  The Embassy learned Nov 11 from UN 
that SCF/UK is re-mobilizing staff now in preparation for 
the resumption of food distribution and feeding activities 
on Nov 13.  End Note.] 
 
7. At the meeting's conclusion, all present concurred that 
it had been a useful exchange, with a generally constructive 
ambience, and agreed to continue to participate in future 
such meetings on a regular basis. 
 
8. Comment:  This meeting represents an initial attempt by 
HC Angelo to promote a more direct dialogue on humanitarian 
issues between the government and donors.  Through this 
initiative, Angelo seems to be trying to re-engage 
government/donors at some level through a dialogue on issues 
surrounding this somewhat less controversial area of 
bilateral relations, as well as trying to extricate himself 
from the center of difficult dialogue between government and 
donors.  As a first attempt, the meeting went well, with a 
reasonable exchange of views on several important subjects. 
Even the testy exchange on politicization of food assistance 
was important for the Government to hear. We are not 
optimistic that this initiative will prove any more 
effective than past similar U.N.-brokered initiatives at 
dialogue with the GOZ.  However, the Mission will continue 
to participate to put forth our points to government on the 
increasingly desperate country situation, and our 
increasingly frustrated efforts to respond to it. 
Sullivan#