|
Back to Index
International
Anti-Eviction Day 18 May 2006
Zimbabwe Social Forum
May 12, 2006
The declaration
We the people of Zimbabwe do solemnly declare on this day
that we shall forever remember with heavy hearts and burning anger,
the atrocious brutality visited upon the poor people of this nation
by the Government of Zimbabwe under the so called Operation Murambatsvina
(Drive out the Filth)
We mourn those
who lost their lives at the hands of overzealous state agents carrying
out this operation; we grieve with the thousands of Operation Murambatsvina
victims who today are still in dire need of humanitarian assistance;
we are traumatized with those thousands of families evicted from
their dwellings who today are homeless and denied the very basic
right to earn a living and to have a roof over their heads; we endure
with boiling anger the site of displaced AIDS patients now condemned
to fast tracked death because they can no longer carry on with treatment;
we struggle together with that woman who daily braves police brutality
and outright looting as she sells tomatoes on the streets so that
she can feed and send her kids to school. We salute those brave
enough to resist this dehumanization by an exhausted regime. In
an environment of a shattered economy with 80% unemployment we ask
the same question as every informal trader; Why are we denied the
right to trade, the right to our only source of livelihood?
Today we remember
the 700 000 people who were evicted and displaced by Operation Murambatsvina,
we remember the 300 000 kids who were forced to drop out of school,
we remember the 25 000 vendors who were arrested and had their goods
looted by corrupt and callous police officers who acted with total
impunity. We remember everything we lost, the trauma and the tears
we had to shed at the hands of a heartless regime that has lost
the support of the people and now rules by force.
For trampling
on our dignity and reducing us to a nation of beggars all in the
name of the paramouncy of political survival, we hold the government
of Zimbabwe, its functionaries and proxies and the political elite
who are determined to hold on to power regardless of the cost to
the economy and to the population, guilty for crimes against humanity,
at both local and international law for deliberating destroying
our dignity and rights and we shall be unrelenting in our quest
for justice.
We condemn
the government of Zimbabwe’s neo-liberal economic agenda whose failure
has impoverished the vast majority of Zimbabweans. We also condemn
the widespread corruption by functionaries of the government of
Zimbabwe and those in the private sector. Accordingly we call for
a people centered economy in which the people shall govern and are
guaranteed of basic socio-economic rights and dignity.
Today we remember
the millions of impoverished Zimbabweans who are victims of Operation
Murambatsvina and rededicate ourselves to the struggle for social
justice and democracy.
Importantly
we want to recognize that evictions, harassment and criminalization
of the poor is not confined to Zimbabwe alone. It is an international
crisis. Accordingly we call on all progressive forces globally to
immortalize our struggles against such shameful state barbarism
in declaring 18 May an International Anti-Eviction Day.
We the people
of Zimbabwe declare that "another Zimbabwe is possible"-
in our life time.
Sign support
for this declaration:
Name/ Organization:
……………………….........................................................................
Email address:………………………………………………………………………………
Please send
your messages of solidarity to antievictioncampaign@yahoo.com
(This campaign
is spearheaded by movements and organizations who are members of
the Zimbabwe Social Forum)
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
