John Kaninda
18 July 2007
Johannesburg — THE United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does not believe the growing Zimbabwean refugee exodus warrants its intervention, it said yesterday in response to a Democratic Alliance (DA) call for help.
The UNHCR said it would not set up a refugee camp in SA near the border to assist with feeding and housing the Zimbabwean economic refugees .
"The DA were certainly thinking in terms of economic refugees, not in terms of refugees as defined by international conventions," said Jack Redden, the UNHCR's regional information officer.
"The only refugees we are dealing with are asylum-seekers."
Redden said that the UNHCR could only be involved in case of the "total collapse" of the Zimbabwean state .
"Such a case would be comparable to a situation of civil war and allow the UNHCR to get involved."
He said measures had been taken to care for Zimbabweans within the borders of their country. "We have also to take into account that the UN World Food Programme has been implementing a very large feeding programme.
"This will help keep a significant number of Zimbabweans within their land."
DA spokesman Mark Lowe said on the party's website yesterday that it was imperative that President Thabo Mbeki or the deputy president take the lead in the refugee camp project.
They ought to act as a link to the UNHCR, the "only legal entity that could manage the project", Lowe said.
"The home affairs department lacks the leadership and capacity to head such a project. Actually, it should not even get near it (the project), as its minister has shown little interest or urgency to tackle the issue of Zimbabwean refugees."
Redden said if SA decided to set up any assistance infrastructure for the Zimbabwean refugees, it would be a "purely governmental decision", one the UNHCR would not get involved in.
Meanwhile, the US yesterday sharply denounced Zimbabwe's price controls.
It called them " reckless" and "counterproductive".
It also announced it would be sending 47400 metric tons of additional food aid to the crumbling country .
In a blistering statement, White House spokesman Tony Snow condemned President Robert Mugabe's "violent crackdown" on democratic opposition and accused him of abducting, detaining, and torturing democracy activists.
"Many brave Zimbabweans from all spectrums of society are fighting to secure freedom and a better life, and we stand ready to engage a new Zimbabwean government committed to democracy, human rights, sound economic policy, and the rule of law," Snow said.
Retailers and manufacturers, grappling to cope with an inflation rate now believed to be well over 5000%, had been raising their prices several times a day until the government last month ordered prices to be cut in half .
"The regime's reckless attempts to address self-imposed hyperinflation have resulted in the arrest of at least 2000 business people, widespread hoarding and profiteering by police and government officials, and shortage of basic staples," said Snow.
"It's irresponsible economic policies will only worsen inflation, unemployment, growing food shortages, and poverty." More than 4-million Zimbabweans were projected to go hungry without foreign aid.
Snow said Washington would provide the additional food assistance to ease the suffering of roughly half-a-million Zimbabweans.
He said that total US aid would feed about 1,4-million until Zimbabwe's harvest next year.
"The Mugabe regime also continues its violent crackdown against the democratic opposition in advance of the March 2008 elections, including the imprisonment, abduction, and torture of democracy activists," said Snow.
"This raises significant questions about the regime's commitment to the Southern African Development Community's mediation effort led by President Mbeki ," Snow said. With Sapa-AFP
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