Slow genocide by bulldozer
Sometimes there is no need to gloss the facts. Zimbabwe’s facts speak for themselves.
Quotes from the UN Report (link in .pdf) are shown in blue (emphasis and links added).
On
Demolished house at Hatcliffe (Page 29)
Popularly referred to as ‘Operation Tsunami’ because of its speed and ferocity it resulted in the destruction of homes, business premises, and vending sites. It is estimated that some 700,000 people in cities across the country have lost either their homes, their source of livelihood, or both. Indirectly, a further 2.4 million people have been affected in varying degrees.
Hundreds of thousands of women, men, and children were made homeless, without access to food, water and sanitation, or health care. Education for thousands of school age children has been disrupted. Many of the sick, including those with HIV and AIDS, no longer have access to care. The vast majority of those directly and indirectly affected are the poor and disadvantaged segments of the population. They are, today, deeper in poverty, deprivation and destitution, and have been rendered more vulnerable. (Page 7)
Mother living in the open in Porta Farm, June 30, 2005 (Page 68)
Thursday, July 21, 2005
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Police raided church halls in Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, rounding up people sheltering there since their homes were destroyed in a hated urban renewal drive that has displaced hundreds of thousands, church leaders said Thursday.
Police raided nine churches in
Recommendation 1. An estimated 700,000 people in cities across the country have either lost their homes or their livelihoods or both. The Government of 
“It was pretty brutal and horrific,” he said. “They had elderly folk, and they were piling them onto vehicles; they were frog-marching children … who had been asleep, and
Recommendation 6. The Government of
Police have torched and bulldozed shantytowns, informal markets and other structures deemed illegal since launching the campaign on May 19. Vendors accused of black-market dealing also have been arrested or had their goods confiscated. Independent estimates of the number affected range from 300,000 to over a million.
About 20,000 people had their homes destroyed in Hatcliffe on the northern outskirts of the capital in May. Many were given just 30 minutes to pack and forced at gunpoint to tear down their own houses.
Recommendation 5. The Government of
An unidentified woman goes through the rubble of her demolished home in
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government defended itself Friday in the face of a U.N. envoy’s report denouncing a crackdown that has forced thousands of poor from their homes and jobs.
The most devastating and immediate effect of this operation was the fact that hundreds of thousands of people were rendered homeless and left without any viable form of livelihood. People were told to return to their ‘rural origins,’ but many simply did not have a rural home to go back to. Civil society and humanitarian agencies tried to reach people who had been affected to protect and assist them. They were denied full access by the police. (Page 13)
Anna Tibaijuka, head of the
A rough estimate of where people are located is as follows:
114,000 or 20%, living in the open with no shelter
114,000 or 20% having gone or forced to go to rural areas
170,000 or 30% absorbed by families, friends, or the extended family
170,000 or 30% seeking refuge within the community in churches and other temporary accommodation (Page 35)
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday he wants to go to Zimbabwe to see firsthand the effects of a much-condemned, government-led clearance of urban slums and insisted those made homeless must be given new homes.
Homeowners who used to rent out parts of their plots to shack dwellers have lost this source of income as a result of the demolitions. Many of them were retired public sector employees whose pensions had been eroded by hyperinflation to as low as US$2 per month. However, remaining landlords are reported to have sharply increased rent, increasing the pressure on tenants and making it more difficult for evictees to find alternative accommodation in urban areas. In Mutare, rents tripled in the weeks following the demolitions, while in
Despite Tibaijuka’s demand that the demolitions stop, paramilitary forces swept into Porta Farm, 22 miles west of Zimbabwe’s capital over the weekend, forcing residents to destroy thousands of shacks, according to U.N. Resident Coordinator Agostinho Zacarias.
Operation Restore Order, while purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering, and, in repeated cases, with disregard to several provisions of national and international legal frameworks. Immediate measures need to be taken to bring those responsible to account, and for reparations to be made to those who have lost property and livelihoods. In parallel, other confidence-building measures need to be taken to restore dialogue between the Government of Zimbabwe and civil society. (Page 7)
Owners demolishing their own house in Epworth,
President Robert Mugabe invited Annan in a telephone conversation Friday, the day Tibaijuka released her report.
“I would want to go to see how we can resolve some of the issues raised in the report,” Annan said.
Recommendation 11. Although a case for crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute might be difficult to sustain, the Government of
Tendai Made, 8, carries part of his family’s property after they were returned from a transit camp to Hatcliff on the outskirts of
The U.N-commissioned report said that even if the operation is an urban cleanup drive, the campaign has been a “crash” operation that will take years for
Mugabe accused Tibaijuka of ignoring the government’s pledge to help rebuild, Zimbabwe presidential spokesman George Charamba told The Herald newspaper during a state visit by Mugabe to China to seek aid for his crumbling economy.
Operation Garikai (Reconstruction/ Resettlement) was officially launched during the mission as a reconstruction effort…. Operation Garikai is based on the scenario that Government will provide stands (plots) upon which those rendered homeless will build their new homes….. Operation Garikai gives the impression of being hastily put together…. The mission was able to witness thousands of people, including small children, pregnant women, and the elderly, who were sleeping in the open without adequate protection from the elements either on the rubble of their destroyed homes, in rural areas, or in official transit camps. The mission visited one of the transit camps known as Caledonia Farm on the outskirts of
Independent economists argue the government cannot afford the $325 million it has promised for the reconstruction effort.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the demolitions have deepened
As for a restoration of economic and political normalcy in
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Riot police turned an urban township into a ghost town Wednesday, rounding up the last residents in defiance of a U.N. call to halt a demolition campaign that has left 700,000 without homes or jobs.
After emptying the Porta Farm township — where some 30,000 people lived just days ago — earth-movers were seen lumbering into the area to finish clearing debris from destroyed homes, cabins and shacks as part of what the government calls Operation Drive Out Trash. Police armed with batons and riot shields barred aid workers and residents from entering.
The Government has, on several occasions, prevented humanitarian actors from providing shelter and basic services to the displaced population, particularly near the demolition sites, even though many of the affected persons remain without any form of shelter or ready means of sustenance. It has also impeded data collection. Lack of access is therefore a serious obstacle to humanitarian action, with significant, adverse consequences for the affected populations. (Page 53)
The latest demolitions came as President Robert Mugabe paid a state visit to
“Kofi, don’t wait for me … I’ll be in China”
Mugabe is confident China will use its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to protect Zimbabwe from any U.N. censure following the U.N. report denouncing the campaign as a violation of international law, a state-owned
U.N. envoy Anna Tibaijuka, meanwhile, presented her report (full report link in .pdf) on the slum clearance to the Security Council Wednesday, despite opposition from
An 18-year-old woman from Zengeza: “Both of my parents left me when I was very young and I stayed with my grandparent living in the city. Then my grandparent fell ill and died in 2000, and my neighbors helped since I was homeless. I pushed myself into a marriage because of the living conditions. I don’t know any of my relatives. Before the clean-up operation, I was a pregnant housewife and my husband was working in one of the tuck-shops. We used to pay rent with that money and it bought enough food for us to survive. Life changed when our cottage and the tuck-shop were destroyed. I gave birth in the open space where we are now staying with our seven-days-old baby. We don’t have enough blankets to cover our baby. We are spending the whole night outside with our newborn baby and our property.” (Page 39)
The
Tibaijuka called for urgent assistance to help those who lost their homes and jobs and said, “The demolitions should stop immediately.”
And how about that money you claim will be used for rebuilding … in three years?
Gideon Gono, Governor of the reserve bank of
Access to services such as HIV information, counseling and condom distribution has been severely disrupted in many places as a direct consequence of the Operation. Nationwide sales of male condoms are reported to have dropped by over 20% from May to June 2005, while sales of female condoms dropped by about 40%. Condom marketing programmes in some areas have reportedly come to a complete standstill, mostly because outlets such as tuck shops and informal vendors have been shut down. (Pages 40-41)
Sleeping in the open at Sakubva Sports Oval Camp, Mutare (Page 68)
Slow genocide by bulldozer.
