Sat Nov 23, 2:25 PM ET

By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Food shortages in Zimbabwe have markedly worsened, causing massive profiteering, political interference in distribution and forcing the hungry to survive on wild fruits and roots, relief agencies said Saturday.

An estimated 6.7 million Zimbabweans, more than half the population, are in danger of starvation in the coming months because of food shortages blamed on drought and the government's chaotic program to seize thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black settlers.

The Food Security Network, a grouping of 24 nongovernment organizations, said household food stocks fell to between zero and less than a month's supply in all but one of the country's 52 districts it monitored in October.

Supplies of grain dropped sharply, pushing up the black market prices of 22 pounds of the corn meal staple by 20 times the government's fixed price of 30 cents.

"The collapse in supply have produced huge reported burdens for the poorest but super profits for some," the relief agencies said in a statement.

The group's 150 community monitors across the country reported people foraging for roots and berries to eat, many families cutting out meals and others removing the corn meal staple from their diet.

Underfed children were dropping out of schools or going absent to search for food.

"Poor communities spend time, transport costs and sell assets to source food," the group said, adding that reports of displaced people increased in October in areas worst affected by shortages.

Political bias in selling food by the state Grain Marketing Board was among the most commonly reported obstacles to acquiring food and there was continuing concern over the latitude given to state officials to decide on who received food, the group said.

Reporters have seen people being forced to show their ruling party membership cards before they could buy corn meal in Harare.

Corn supplies to formal shops were scarce, with long lines and what the relief agencies termed "backdoor sales and non transparent procedures."

On Wednesday, a Danish human rights group accused the government of withholding food from opposition supporters, interfering with distribution of international aid and prolonging the nation's grain shortage to protect its power.

"The political abuse of food is the most serious and widespread human rights violation in Zimbabwe at this time," said a report by Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark.

The government has previously denied using food as a political weapon.

Zimbabwe has been wracked by political turmoil over the last 2 1/2 years that human rights groups blame on the increasingly unpopular President Robert Mugabe's militant followers.

Zimbabweans get corn from government controlled food-for-work programs, government run grain sales or international donor feeding programs.

Last month, the World Food Program suspended relief efforts in the western district of Insiza after ruling party militants threatened aid workers and seized donated grain during a parliamentary election campaign there

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2002