informed Human Rights Watch that the humanitarian ban was having a devastating impact on people in Zimbabwe’s rural areas.14 The representatives also told Human Rights Watch that it was very difficult to conduct a thorough assessment of the impact of the suspension on the population because a number of provinces remained inaccessible to outsiders and were under the control of ZANU-PF supporters, militia and “war veterans.” The collapse in Zimbabwe’s food production has caused a serious food deficit, affecting some five million people (more than one-third of the population).15 Hundreds of thousands of people in rural areas are entirely dependent on food assistance carried out by international agencies. The humanitarian situation has also been compounded by the deteriorating economic situation in the country with official inflation at around 2.2 million percent.16 According to the World Food Program, crop production in Zimbabwe decreased by 28 percent from last year.17 In addition, local humanitarian agencies informed Human Rights Watch that months of violence in the rural provinces had contributed to decreased crop production. Human Rights Watch reports in 2003 and 2005 documented how food assistance was used as a political weapon and denied to suspected supporters of Zimbabwe's main opposition party and to residents of former commercial farms resettled under the country's “fast-track” land reform program.18 Human Rights Watch believes that the government’s suspension of humanitarian assistance by local and international humanitarian agencies is yet another attempt by the government to control food aid distribution around the country and deny assistance to those it perceives as supporting the MDC. 14 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with representatives of two local humanitarian agencies, Harare, August 4, 2008. 15 World Food Program, Zimbabwe country page, http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/indexcountry.asp?country=716, (accessed August 11, 2008). 16 “Official Zimbabwe Inflation at 2.2 million percent,” Associated Press, July 17, 2008, http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2RPSaqbbqphRrvYYIaUsAV27LZwD91VM5O00, (accessed August 11, 2008). 17 World Food Program, Zimbabwe country page, http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/indexcountry.asp?country=716, (accessed August 11, 2008). 18 Human Rights Watch, Not Eligible: The Politicization of Food in Zimbabwe, October 2003, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/Zimbabwe1003/; Human Rights Watch, Not a Level Playing Field: Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Elections in 2005, March 2005, http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/zimbabwe0305.pdf. “They Beat Me Like a Dog” 8