NewsMax.com
Friday, Feb. 23, 2001

The former Rhodesia, says Janes, "is in the grip of an escalating economic and fiscal crisis."

An incredible 1 million Zimbabweans have died of AIDS in the past six years, there was a nationwide shortage of fuel last year because suppliers had not been paid, the nation’s currency has been devalued, and the food supply has been imperiled by the violent seizure of white-owned farms by former terrorists.

Says Janes: "The security of the country's small, but productive and influential, white farming community has been jeopardized by escalating armed occupations of farmland by former ZANU freedom fighters, commonly referred to as 'war veterans'.

"Occupation of empty office buildings has also occurred. More than 20 people of all races were killed and many more wounded, most of them black farm workers and members of opposition parties, during the occupations and violent election campaign of 2000."

As a result, Zimbabwe faces a 35 percent shortage of the nation’s food staple, maize, thanks to the continuing disruption of agriculture caused by government-backed farm invasions.

Last October there were riots over food prices driven up by the farm invasions.

In addition to a worsening economic recession, Janes reported that Zimbabwe has been "plunged into a political and security crisis" made worse by "President Mugabe's responses to the swelling opposition to his government which have damaged not only the country's democratic institutions but also its economic and social fabric."

In concluding its gloomy report, Janes noted that "it was recently announced that Zimbabwe had lost one million people to AIDS in six years, and it was estimated that 25 percent of all Zimbabweans were infected with the HIV virus. The incidence of AIDS is among the highest in the world."

See more articles about Zimbabwe.