Posted on 01/04/2003 4:28:14 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Police fired tear gas and charged crowds with batons to quell rioting in a food line in western Zimbabwe, witnesses and the state-run media said Saturday - the most serious violence reported since acute food shortages recently hit the troubled country.
The unrest Friday in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, led to the arrests of 34 people, the state-run Bulawayo Chronicle reported. No injuries were reported.
Several hundred people had been waiting in the line, witnesses said.
A food crisis that threatens some 6.7 million people with possible starvation - more than half the population - has been blamed on a combination of drought and the breakdown of the country's agricultural sector in the wake of the government's controversial land reform program.
In an effort to redistribute farms to landless blacks, thousands of white-owned commercial farms were seized amid much violence and mayhem, disrupting food production in this southern African country, once called the region's breadbasket.
Long food lines at stores are now commonplace across the country. Many trying to buy scarce corn meal, sugar, milk, cooking oil and meat leave empty handed when supplies run out.
Rioters in Bulawayo said they were protesting what they said was favoritism in the selling of corn meal, the country's staple food, state television reported.
Witnesses said some people, believed to be ruling party supporters, were given preference in line at the state grain depot and allowed to buy extra amounts of corn meal.
No further information was immediately available from police on Saturday.
Critics say the embattled Mugabe is using food as a political weapon to stay in power.
Reporters have seen state grain depots selling corn only to holders of ruling party cards, some of whom then resold it at inflated prices.
The government has denied influencing food distribution to its followers.
Hard currency shortages have also led to gasoline shortages in recent weeks. Long lines of vehicles snake around city blocks as people wait to buy fuel.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980. Inflation and unemployment have soared. Essential imports have been reduced to a trickle, spurring black market trading in fuel, food and other goods at up to ten times the government-fixed price.
(as-dk)
Dayum I guess IAN SMITH was right after all
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