to-child transmission of the virus in the womb or through breastfeeding. Education has also been a major casualty of the country's crisis. Zimbabwe came close to achieving universal primary education in the mid 1990s, with 92 per cent of children attending primary school. In 2003, the figure was 67 per cent. Western governments cite as their reasons for cutting aid the severe lack of governance under Mugabe, the collapse of the rule of law and reckless government spending. The government is also accused of withholding food relief from famine-stricken opposition party strongholds to force them to vote for the ruling ZANU (PF) party. In June last year, Mugabe ordered the World Food Programme, the U.N. famine relief arm, to stop distributing food, claiming that the country was "choking on food" after a "bumper harvest". Famine monitoring organizations, however, said that Zimbabwe was experiencing a third successive year of famine, while the government earlier this year admitted it was importing maize, the national staple. ---SP 2355 Local Time 2055 GMT
