Posted on March 5th, 2007 at 11:30 am by aaron
Note: this is an opposing view to the UNICEF Report found HERE.
UNITED NATIONS, February 26 — When does foreign aid serve to prop up a dictatorship? This question was raised earlier this year at the Executive Board meetings of the UN Development Program, concerning UN aid in North Korea. But the question appears to similarly arise in the wake of an announcements Friday and earlier this month concerning expanded programs in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe by the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
Mugabe’s long descent from participant in the Zimbabwean independence struggle to dictator is widely known, certainly to the senior leadership of UNICEF. The UN commissioned a report by Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, head of the UN’s Nairobi hub, on Mugabe’s mass eviction in 2005 of 700,000 perceived political opponents, called Operation Muarambatsvina / Take Out the Trash (or, “Drive Out the Filth”). Virtually none of the families evicted were re-housed, according to follow-up reports.
