AP: Zimbabwe Severs Ties to IMF, World Bank?

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Here is the story that Zimbabwe today denies is true

Robert Weissman
Essential Information			|   Internet:	rob@essential.org

Dow Jones Newswires -- April 11, 1999
 Dow Jones Newswires

 Zimbabwe Severs Ties With IMF, World Bank - State
 Report

 Dow Jones Newswires

 HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)--The government severed ties with the International
Monetary Fund
 and the World Bank and accused the Washington-based institutions of
political interference in its
 domestic policies, the state-controlled Sunday Mail reported.

 Outstanding aid of $53 million in balance of payments support from the IMF
will be sought from
 other unspecified donors, ruling party spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira told
the newspaper.

 He said the IMF and World Bank, the main backers of Western-style economic
reforms since
 1992, had made "unrealistic demands" as a requirement for releasing funds.

 "If we have survived without them so far, we can do without them," said
Shamuyarira, who is also
 commerce and industry minister.

 The newspaper, seen as an official mouthpiece of the government, said the
financial institutions had
 delayed distributing funds to Zimbabwe to punish the government for a
controversial program to
 nationalize white-owned farms.

 The World Bank withheld risk guarantee loans on the expansion of a
coal-fired power station in
 western Zimbabwe and the construction of a second coal-based power
facility, it said.

 Both projects have been mired in controversy after bidding procedures were
allegedly broken and a
 Malaysian conglomerate was given favorable investment terms.

 The Sunday Mail also cited IMF concerns that Zimbabwe has sent 8,000
troops to Congo to back
 President Laurent Kabila against ethnic Tutsi rebels supported by Rwanda
and Uganda. The costly
 deployment comes at a time of worsening economic hardships at home.

 Inflation has soared to 50% in recent months. The government has vowed to
freeze food prices to
 avert possible unrest. Six people died in food riots last year, triggered
by a 25 percent rise in the price
 of the corn meal staple.
                                                                     
            


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