In a hard-hitting statement released to the London-based publication Africa Analysis and scheduled for publication in British newspapers on Friday, President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi pointed the finger of blame at the international financial agencies. With hundreds of Malawians already dead in recent months as a result of famine, he noted that unfortunate weather conditions were only partly to blame. “Your hands are often tied by the requirements of donor nations and agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank,” he said. Muluzi maintained that his government had been running a “very successful scheme” to provide seed and fertilizer to smallholder farmers. This had been “severely curtailed” last year because the IMF and World Bank would not allow the government to continue financing it. Even more damningly he said that the country's strategic grain reserves had been sold on the orders of the IMF and World Bank. The money realised from this sale had gone to pay off commercial bank loans used to buy the grain in the first place.