Carter, Annan push for Zimbabwe aid

Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and Graca Machel spoke to Zimbabwean refugees yesterday in Johannesburg. (Alexander Joe/ AFP/ Getty Images)

JOHANNESBURG - Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, and Graca Machel visited a church housing Zimbabwean refugees yesterday as they continued efforts to ease Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis even though they were barred from entering the country.

The former UN secretary general, the former US president, and human rights advocate Machel, who is married to Nelson Mandela, said Saturday they were denied visas for a mission to assess the needs of Zimbabweans, many of whom are suffering from hunger and disease.

They have insisted their visit was not related to regional attempts to get President Robert Mugabe and his rival, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, to implement a stalled power-sharing agreement.

Yesterday the three talked to Zimbabweans who fled and sought refuge at the Central Methodist church in downtown Johannesburg.

Carter spoke to 14-year-old Kennedy Manyani, an orphan who crossed the crocodile-infested Limpopo River into South Africa by himself three months ago.

"I came because my grandmother could not afford to buy me clothes, food," he told Carter.

More than 1,600 people are squeezed into the church with many more sleeping on the pavement outside. An estimated 3 million Zimbabweans live in South Africa and millions of others have fled to neighboring countries in search of jobs and security.

While Zimbabwe's political crisis occupies politicians, the humanitarian crisis is deepening. The health system has collapsed and a cholera outbreak has killed nearly 300 people in Zimbabwe, the UN said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS