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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Clean
up operation not yet complete!
Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights (ZLHR)
August 04, 2005
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR) notes with grave concern that over 1500
families previously at Caledonia Transit camp, Hatcliffe Extension
and Porta Farm were forcibly relocated to Hopley Farm along the
Masvingo Road on the understanding that they will be allocated stands
and become beneficiaries of the government's purported "Operation
Garikai". For the past one week or more the families have gone
without a decent meal, clean water and sanitary facilities, or temporary
shelter; they have had to resort to using nearby bushes for purposes
of relieving themselves. They have been subjected to the most dehumanising
conditions in total disregard of the instructive and critical findings
of the United Nations Special Envoy on Human Settlements Issues
in Zimbabwe.
The current
families at Hopley Farm, including families from Porta and Hatcliffe,
are estimated at about 2260 people, of whom 305 are men, 476 women,
633 boys and about 625 girls. Of the school-going children, an estimated
210 had registered with various schools and colleges for their Ordinary,
Junior, and Grade Seven certificate examinations. For the past one
month or more these children have been denied an opportunity to
further their studies and enjoy the fundamental right to education
like any other child. There is urgent need for the government to
make arrangements for these school going children to continue with
their education and classes for possible sitting of the exams, or
ensure that conditions exist such that they will not be irreparably
prejudiced by these state acts of wanton displacements.
ZLHR is further
gravely concerned about the conditions of other vulnerable groups
such as babies, orphans, the elderly and terminally ill patients
who have gone for days without any medical and humanitarian assistance.
The authorities
present at Hopley Farm must be condemned in the strongest terms
for making it impossible for any form of humanitarian or legal assistance
to be provided to the people. One of the army officers in charge
of the construction activities indicated that access can only granted
by superior officers in charge of the operation code named "INOC".
Access to the families will only be permitted with the prior authorisation
of the officials in charge of the operation, who are said to be
housed at Makombe Building in Harare City Centre.
In light of the foregoing ZLHR immediately calls upon the government
of Zimbabwe to:
1. Remove
the unnecessary restrictions on the provision of humanitarian
assistance to the families at Hopley Farm for they are reminiscent
of the transit camp at Caledonia and which will surely lead to
an unmitigated humanitarian disaster complete with rampant human
rights violations,
2. Allows
individuals, organisations who are willing and ready to help free
and unimpeded access to, and unlimited interaction with the families
at Hopley,
3. To take
the recommendations of the United Nations seriously and make scrupulous
efforts to implement them.
Visit the ZLHR
fact sheet
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