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Civil society remembers Operation Murambatsvina
Botswana Daily News
June 20, 2006

http://www.upi.com/AfricaMonitoring/view.php?StoryID=20060620-186749-1493-r

GABORONE - Civil society in Botswana Saturday commemorated Operation Murambatsvina the Zimbabwean government undertook last year to restore order in squatter settlements.

The event was organised under the auspices of Botswana Civil Society Solidarity Coalition for Zimbabwe (BOCISCOZ) in an endeavour to raise awareness about the crisis in Zimbabwe and to sensitise Batswana about the dangers of xenophobia.

Speakers at the event lamented the brutality the Zimbabwean government has unleashed on its people, which is not condemned by SADC leaders who hide under the guise of silent diplomacy.

SADC and its leaders have adopted a totally untenable strategy called silent diplomacy, charged Taolo Lucas of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP). SADC has turned itself into a brotherhood of heartless conspirators who do not want to assist the Zimbabwean people against the tyranny of Zimbabwe.

Lucas said this flawed strategy had, among others, resulted in high levels of uncontrollable crime, xenophobia and illegal immigration.

He called for active engagement of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe so as to strike an amicable solution to the current crisis.

He stated that commitments made by continental bodies such as SADC and African Union (AU) must translate into tangible outcomes.

Transgressors must receive sanction of sorts while rogue leaders and delinquent states should be made to account or face isolation, he added.

A situation obtaining in Africa where unelected despots are graced with membership of continental bodies like the AU is unacceptable.

Samson Guma, the MP for Tati East, advised that Batswana and Zimbabweans must learn to co-exist with mutual tolerance, acceptance and a resolve towards mutual enrichment.

We face problems and fortunes, albeit at different measures and supply, he said. We all at one point or the other disappoint one another, thus creating opportunities for problems for one another of different profiles at different frequencies.

Guma said the spirit of botho that involved extending courtesy to others should be the guiding principle in Botswana/Zimbabwe relations.

Kathleen Letshabo, the vice president of the Botswana National Front (BNF) condemned the Zimbabwe government for violating peoples basic human rights.

Letshabo said it was regrettable that the Harare government denied people the right to good shelter by demolishing their houses and leaving them homeless.

However, she explained that she did not encourage illegal squatting but called on governments to enact policies that equitably cater for all in land allocation matters.

She also regretted the fact that at times Batswana tended to ill-treat Zimbabweans by, among others, paying them meagre wages for their services.

Why should we apply those double standards as fellow neighbours? I think we should treat these people the way we want Mugabe to treat them, she said.

She also challenged SADC observer missions that oversee Zimbabwe elections, saying they never disclose the truth.

It is clear that elections in Zimbabwe were not free and fair but SADC always wants to mislead us into believing that they were, Letshabo charged.

Meanwhile, a United Nations (UN) report on Murambatsvina last year condemned the operation as a disastrous venture that had left more than 500 000 people homeless and jobless while also violating international law and creating a humanitarian crisis.

It also said a further 2.4 million people had been affected by the countrywide campaign that saw many shantytowns, ramshackle markets and makeshift homes demolished.

UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka observed that while the campaign purported to target illegal dwellings and clamp down on alleged illicit activities, the operation was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference for human suffering.

In its rebuttal, Mugabes government has defended the operation as an urban clean-up drive and has promised to help the displaced rebuild.

Zimbabwe has pledged to provide 1.2 million houses or building plots by 2008 but the report said economists were sceptical on whether government could afford such a project at a time when Zimbabwe was wracked by triple-digit inflation and in throes of a severe food crisis.

Even if motivated by a desire to ensure a semblance of order in the chaotic manifestations of rapid urbanisation and rising poverty characteristic of African cities, nonetheless Operation Restore Order turned out to be a disastrous venture, the UN report say. BOPA

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