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Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Zimbabwe
"as bad as it can get" - UN housing expert
Reuters
June 01, 2006
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/SODA-6QD593?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe
GENEVA - Living
conditions have worsened in Zimbabwe, where most of the 700,000
people who lost homes or businesses in mass evictions last year
were still struggling to find shelter, a United Nations housing
expert said on Thursday.
Miloon Kothari,
the U.N. special rapporteur on adequate housing, said most of those
displaced by President Robert Mugabe's May 2005 eviction campaign
remained homeless, in resettlement camps or were living without
food, safe water or sanitation.
"It is as bad
as it can get," Kothari said.
He took aim
at the international community for what he called a "shocking" lack
of pressure on Zimbabwe.
"The political
leaders continue to be silent. They are saying there is quiet diplomacy,
but you can't have quiet diplomacy for a year with no results,"
he said.
"The international
community seems to have forgotten the people of Zimbabwe," he told
reporters at U.N. headquarters in Geneva.
The Mugabe government
used police and bulldozers to demolish street stalls and residences
in urban shantytowns in its "Operation Restore Order" eviction campaign.
While authorities
said it was aimed at cracking down on black market activity, critics
decried the evictions as part of a political swipe against the largely
urban supporters of Zimbabwe's main opposition party.
Kothari said
some people evicted last year had returned to the site of their
previous homes, making them vulnerable to a new round-up by the
government.
"We have information
that another round of evictions is imminent," he said.
Kothari said
he was "extremely concerned" the government had not heeded calls
from the United Nations to halt further demolitions and pay compensation
for property that was unlawfully destroyed.
He said Zimbabwe's
extensive human suffering, combined with difficult economic conditions
including the world's highest inflation rates, had compounded the
country's problems.
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