A former veteran of Zimbabwe’s independence war who led invasions of white-owned farms has come under fierce criticism for setting up a fund to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association said it had taken over the fund set up by controversial former guerrilla Joseph Chinotimba who wanted to raise Z$30-billion ($1,1-million) for victims of Katrina, the privately-owned Daily Mirror reported.
Chinotimba, who led fellow veterans in farm invasions in 2000, said he planned to travel to New Orleans to witness the destruction caused by the hurricane which struck on August 29.
But spokesperson Andrew Ndlovu of the war vets association said the money would be better spent helping Zimbabweans.
”It’s folly of the highest order for him to say we want to donate 30-billion dollars to the Americans when some of our own comrades and spouses of deceased war veterans are living in abject poverty,” Ndlovu was quoted as saying.
Chinotimba dismissed Ndlovu as ”mad” saying that the money would come from private donors, not from the Zimbabwean government.
”Spouses of late war veterans are receiving pensions from the government. If Ndlovu wants to help them he must give them money from his own pocket,” Chinotimba said.
President Robert Mugabe, last month attacked the US government for its slow response to the hurricane disaster.
”A whole community of mainly non-whites was deliberately abandoned to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina as sacrificial lambs,” he said.
‘I will hear these screams for the rest of my life’
Meanwhile, US authorities said on Monday they arrested a man who allegedly ran a fake charity for Katrina victims by claiming he was airlifting emergency supplies and evacuating sick children from affected areas.
The scam allegedly earned Florida resident Gary Kraser $40 000 in charitable donations, according to the US State Attorney’s Office in Miami.
Kraser used a website to claim he and other compassionate Florida pilots were flying volunteer missions to Louisiana, and needed more funds to continue delivering medical supplies and evacuating sick children.
”I saw people on their roofs … waving at us as if we were Air Rescue … I will hear these screams for the rest of my life,” Kraser said in one appeal for donations, according to his indictment.
In a blog meant as a diary of his missions of mercy, he claimed he spotted Air Force One over Louisiana and tipped the wings of his aircraft to salute the US president.
But authorities say Kraser made the whole thing up and doesn’t even have a pilot’s licence.
”It is simply unconscionable and intolerable that anyone would seek a personal financial benefit from the horrible human tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina,” said US Attorney Alexander Acosta.
Kraser could face up to 20 years behind bars if he is found guilty on all four counts of wire fraud, Acosta said at a news conference in Miami.
Authorities said several other Katrina charity fraud cases were being investigated. – Sapa-AFP