HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Zimbabwe police have extended a demolition campaign targeting the homes and livelihoods of the urban poor to the vegetable gardens they rely on for food, saying the crops planted on vacant lots are damaging the environment.

The destruction of city plots is a painful reminder of one of the most hated policies of the white government that ruled before independence in 1980 -- the random slashing of crops on roadsides and railroad embankments.

The current crackdown comes when this southern African country needs to import 1.2 million metric tons of food to avoid famine. Years of drought, combined with the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans, have decimated agricultural production.

Many poor families depend on their vegetable patches for food and a tiny income at a time of 144 percent inflation and 80 percent unemployment.
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No amount of Foreign Aid to countries infested with such brutal dictatorships will alleviate these kinds of misery. Regieme change is necessary to begin any viable steps to solution.