Zimbabwe cancels U.S aid for parliament

Harare, Apr 15: Zimbabwe's government has cancelled a United States assistance programme for parliamentary reforms over a report suggesting that Washington is working to oust President Robert Mugabe, a state newspaper said today.

Political relations between Mugabe's government and Western countries, but mainly the U.S and former colonial power Britain, have deteriorated sharply in the last three months over Zimbabwe's crackdown on the political opposition.

In a statement in the Sunday Mail newspaper, Zimbabwe Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma said the legislature had ''terminated forthwith its agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) following claims by the State Department that it is working with some portfolio committees of parliament to discredit the government.'' U.S. officials in Harare were not immediately available today to comment on the story, and details of how much aid the Zimbabwe parliament was receiving were not published.

''The attempts by the U.S. government to create the impression that one arm of the state, namely parliament, is collaborating with a foreign government to undermine and discredit its executive is gross misrepresentation, mischievous and irresponsible,'' Zvoma said, adding the Zimbabwe parliament was in control of all its programmes and policies.

Two weeks ago, the Zimbabwe government highlighted a U.S.

State Department human rights report indicating that Washington was working with opposition and civic groups, journalists and the clergy ''in an attempt to topple'' Mugabe.

Washington, London and other Western powers say they are merely trying to restore democracy in Zimbabwe.

Last month, Mugabe said Western powers critical of his crackdown on the opposition could ''go hang'' and he threatened to kick out Western diplomats accused of interfering in Zimbabwe's domestic affairs.

Western nations called for more sanctions against Mugabe after several opposition figures, including MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were badly beaten after being arrested while trying to attend a March 11 protest rally.

Critics accuse Mugabe of plunging the southern African state into a severe economic crisis through controversial policies.

But Mugabe, 83, and in power since independence, blames the economic collapse of Zimbabwe's once thriving economy on Western sabotage seeking to punish him for seizing and redistributing white-owned farms to indigenous blacks.

REUTERS