IMF to lend to Zimbabwe

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

IMF agrees to lend Zimbabwe 200 million US dollars: IMF source
Date: Tue Jul 20 06:00:11 CDT 1999

   HARARE, July 20 (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed
to lend 200 million US dollars to Zimbabwe over a 14-month period, after
clarification of the country's war spending, an IMF source said Tuesday.
   The finance body had asked Zimbabwe's government about its expenditure in
the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to which President Robert
Mugabe has sent thousands of troops to support the Kinshasa regime.
   According to the source, extracting the military spending details from
the Harare government was not easy. "The Zimbabweans felt offended, shocked,
but they all the same agreed to give us the information, we got all the
clarification we wanted. They had no choice."
   The authorities had been asked for such details on military spending
particularly in the light of rumours that Harare was ordering new combat
aircraft.
   "We have had assurances," the source said in answer to a question. "If
there is budgetary overspending, there will be cuts in other budget
sectors."
   The IMF had blocked standby credits to Zimbabwe after the government in
June sent 3,000 more soldiers to back DRC President Laurent Kabila, who
obtained military support from Harare as well as Angola and Namibia soon
after DRC rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda launched a major insurgency in
August last year.
   Harare's costly military action in the DRC, with which it has no border
unlike almost all the other belligerents who sent troops there, has caused
major economic domestic problems and led to protests at the involvement of
about a third of the Zimbabwean army.
   Mugabe in April dismissed the world finance body as a monstrous beast and
amid heated debate top government officials warned they had plans to sever
all ties with it, but they subsequently withdrew this.
   "The IMF was worried, because our calculations had been based on the
presence (in DRC) of 7,000 soldiers. This went up from 7,000 to 10,000
Zimbabwean troops," the IMF source said.
   However, according to the source, the reinforcement was "carried out to
strengthen their position before the peace negotiations", which led six
countries to sign an accord in Lusaka on July 10. The document was not,
however, signed by the different rebel factions.
   "The IMF management is satisfied with Zimbabwe's replies, notably on
military spending," the source said, adding that the New York-based fund's
council would meet on August 4 and a first tranche of 35 million dollars
would be released for Harare the same day.