New US legislation to suspend aid

The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee has passed new legislation to suspend US aid to Zimbabwe until the rule of law has been restored in the country.

The new bill said that under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe had become more totalitarian. Senator Bill Frist, chairman of the committee's Africa panel, and sponsor of the legislation, said in Washington on Wednesday: "The farm invasions are nothing but a cover for an assault on democracy, the collapse of the economy and a desperate effort to win over
rural, landless voters."

The new legislation called 'The Zimbabwe Democracy Act' would authorise funding to help democratic institutions mount legal challenges against the election results. Funds would also be made available to torture victims and independent media.

This year US aid to Zimbabwe was budgeted at US $12.1 million.

The bill also calls on US representatives at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to vote against any new credit for Zimbabwe. "If we allow Zimbabwe to continue down this path, we risk allowing further instability in Southern Africa," Frist added.

The legislation also has a provision to allocate an estimated US $16 million for land reform programmes, "once the president and the congress conclude that democracy has been restored in Zimbabwe," US media reports said.

Meanwhile the US State Department warned that it would watch the election "closely" before it considered a US $15 million aid request from Zimbabwe for the 2001 fiscal year that starting in October.