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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Zimbabwe
ignores UN over urban demolitions
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
December 01, 2006
Some 18 months
after launching a brutal campaign of urban demolitions and forced
evictions, the government of Zimbabwe has ignored all the recommendations
contained in a highly critical United Nations report, the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum said in a report entitled "Political
Repression disguised as Civic Mindedness: Operation Murambatsvina
One Year Later" which it published on 30 November 2006.
The Forum, in
a 45-page audit of events since the so-called Operation
Murambatsvina or Operation Clean Up Filth, urged international
action over the Mugabe government's long record of disregarding
international conventions. Zimbabwe must be discussed at the UN
Security Council, it added.
``It can legitimately
be asked of the international community, how long will it accept
that this is the behaviour of a responsible member of the community
of nations?'' the Forum said. ``And, furthermore, what
action of the Zimbabwe government will finally invoke the doctrine
of the Responsibility to Protect imposed on the international community?''
UN Special Envoy Anna
Tibaijuka, in a report released in July 2005, said the demolition
of thousands of dwellings and makeshift stalls was a ``catastrophe''
which had robbed 700,000 people of their homes and livelihoods.
She made 12 recommendations, including prosecutions of those responsible,
a proper reconstruction programme, compensation for victims, and
that the Zimbabwe authorities facilitate humanitarian operations.
The Forum said that none
of this has happened: the authorities have obstructed humanitarian
aid; the official reconstruction programme is a ``complete fiasco''
riddled with corruption and nepotism; hundreds of thousands continue
to live in deplorable conditions in camps; and evictions have continued.
The Zimbabwe government's
argument that the operation was for the benefit of the people is
shown to be false, said the report. The informal sector remains
as it is, corruption has increased at all levels, there is no meaningful
rehousing, and the economy has worsened.
But, said the Forum,
if the real motive was to suppress opposition, then it had succeeded
by making it more difficult to organise anti-government protests.
``For the ordinary
Zimbabwean, it matters little whether the Zimbabwe government is
malevolent or incompetent, or both; all that they can look forward
to is a life of extreme hardship, and the certainty that any complaint
about their lot will be met with brutal repression and denial from
a government that few believe has a legitimate right to be in power,''
the report said
Visit the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum fact
sheet
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