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President Robert Mugabe's policies to stem Zimbabwe's economic meltdown are once more attracting attention of all the wrong kind. Last year, in an operation called Murambatsvina (or "drive out trash"), soldiers destroyed the homes and market stalls of thousands of small traders and opposition supporters and forced many of them to resettle in grim camps or return to their rural homes. Recently, troops have swept rural areas, ostensibly to help boost agricultural productivity by growing food on idle farms. In reality, though, human-rights advocates say the army has begun seizing food from peasant farmers, raising fears that this year's harvest will be confiscated to feed soldiers and tighten control over rural opposition strongholds. "All basic foods are now under direct military control," says Eddie Cross, an economist and adviser to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The latest exercise — dubbed Operation Taguta/ Sisuthi or "eat well" — has been disastrous, according to a report released last month by the Solidarity Peace Trust, a South African human-rights group. The group says the army has left communities without enough grain to feed themselves, despite a year of bumper harvests. The food grab and increasing militarization of the government comes as annual inflation passed 1,000% on Friday.

The World Health Organization says Zimbabweans now have the world's lowest life expectancy, due to poverty, hiv/aids and the collapse of the country's health-care system. Says Cross: "The mood in Zimbabwe is one of resignation and misery." Without change, "we will end up as a small country with 6 million poor peasants who do what they are told."

• MEGAN LINDOW
• With inflation surpassing 1,000% and food increasingly scarce, Zimbabwe is sliding toward disaster