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Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Murambatsvina
commemoration marches banned
MISA-Zimbabwe
May 18, 2006
The police have
banned countrywide commemorative marches planned by church groups
to mark the plight of thousands of people left homeless in the aftermath
of the government’s controversial Operation
Restore Order.
United Nations
estimates say more than 700 000 people were left without roofs over
their heads when the government launched the operation, also known
as Operation Murambitsvina (Clean the Dirt), destroying thousands
of illegal structures in the country’s major towns in May last
year.
A spokesman
for the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance (ZCA) told Reuters that the
police had summoned pastors and ordered them to cancel weekend prayer
meetings and a march in sympathy with victims of the blitz.
“We are
likely to challenge that in the courts because prayer meetings and
peaceful processions by churches should not require police permission,”
said Hussein Sibanda, ZCA spokesperson.
Human rights
groups have planned eight weeks of meetings and marches to commemorate
the crackdown that was condemned by the UN after it dispatched its
representative, Anna Tibaijuka, to Zimbabwe to assess the impact
of the demolitions.
Leading human
rights activist Dr John Makumbe and university lecturer, was detained
for about five hours on 17 May 2006 for apparently assisting rights
groups in coming up with a programme to commemorate the demolitions.
NGO officials
and journalists were on 16 May 2006 barred from entering Hopley
Farm, a government holding camp on the outskirts of Harare after
state security agents demanded that they produce official clearance
letters.
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