Zimbabwe Continues to Block Gene-Altered Corn

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 3, 2002; Page A14

The Zimbabwean government,  the U.S.   Agency  for  International
Development  and  the  United  Nations World Food Program plan to
continue negotiating through  the  weekend  over  how  to  get  a
shipment  of  gene-modified  food  to the African nation's hungry
populace, sources in Africa and the United States said yesterday.  

About half of Zimbabwe's 13 million citizens are on the brink  of
famine   because   of   a   prolonged  drought  and  bureaucratic
mismanagement of  food  supplies.   Earlier  this  week,  a  ship
containing  17,500 metric tons of corn donated by USAID docked at
Durban, South Africa,  for distribution to Zimbabwe by the United
Nations.  But President Robert Mugabe has said he is reluctant to
accept  the  corn  unless it is milled.  Otherwise,  he has said,
farmers  may   plant   some   genetically   engineered   kernels,
contaminating  the  nation's  fields  and  making Zimbabwean corn
ineligible for export in future years to Europe,  which restricts
such varieties.  

It is uncertain who would pay to mill the corn.  Negotiations are
focusing  on  how  to  ensure that cornmeal gets to areas most in
need  if  the  Zimbabwean  government  does  the  milling.    Aid
organizations have been distributing food through nongovernmental
organizations  there  because of evidence that the government has
been  diverting  food  from  areas  of  poor  political  support.
Sources said aid agencies want to be assured that the corn,  once
milled, will not be diverted.