Zimbabwe denies land grab by ruling elite - Colonel Muammar Gadaffi taking his cut*** HARARE, Zimbabwe - Allegations that top politicians and ruling party elite took confiscated white-owned land intended for the landless and impoverished were "patently stupid and indecent," a government spokesman said Thursday. However, ruling party officials were not excluded from a program to allocate seized land to some 54,000 new black commercial farmers, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said in a statement. A report compiled by farmers that was distributed Thursday said hundreds of senior officials, ruling party supporters, military, police and intelligence officers, and even journalists in the state media were allocated plots ranging in size from a few acres (hectares) to farms of thousands of acres (hectares).***
Another African tragedy*** When he last talked about development aid, President Bush linked U.S. overseas assistance to good governing, and there is nothing wrong with that demand. Whether it directs its words to the governments in Zimbabwe, Malawi or Zambia, Washington should advocate sane long-term agricultural policies, responsiveness to the public opinion and transparency to prevent fraud.
But there is a difference between long-term development aid and humanitarian emergency relief. When innocent people are perishing of hunger, their governments' shortcomings should not be used as a pretext to deny assistance. After a number of private aid organizations conferred recently in Washington, they left the meeting with the impression that the Bush administration is "intent on engaging quickly and robustly," as one participant put it.***