Who’s Using Humanitarian Aid as a Political Weapon?

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When Zimbawe’s ZANU-PF government was accused of using food aid to punish political supporters of the Western-backed opposition Movement for Democratic Change, a hue and cry was raised in all quarters. Newspaper editorialists, government officials, elected representatives, NGO spokesmen and human-rights imperialists deplored the manipulation of humanitarian assistance.

But when the Washington Post reported that South Korea had suspended food aid to the North to force Pyongyang back to six-party talks (1), the silence was deafening. There were no outraged editorials, no marches, no letter writing campaigns.

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This is terrorism on an entirely different scale than that practiced by guerillas, insurgents and resistance fighters.

Asked by a French reporter whether it was cowardly to use women’s baskets and handbags to carry explosives to kill innocent people, Larbi Ben M’hidi, leader of the resistance to the French colonial occupation of Algeria, turned the question around. "And doesn’t it seem more cowardly to drop napalm bombs on defenseless villages so that there are a thousand times more innocent victims? Of course, if we had your airplanes it would be a lot easier for us. Give us your bombers, and you can have our baskets."

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