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Take Mugabe to The Hague over home demolitions, says group
Edith Kaseke, ZimOnline
May 23, 2007

View the Operation Murambatsvina Index of Articles

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1419

Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government's slum clearance drive in 2005 which left thousands homeless could be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), an international rights group has said, renewing pressure on Harare which critics accuse of widespread human rights violations. The sight of police accompanying bulldozers razing shacks and houses which the government said were illegally built as residents watched helplessly, ignited an international condemnation and led to the United Nations (UN) sending a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. The UN said in a report that "Operation Murambatsvina" was a "disastrous venture" which had been "carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering" and left more than 700 000 people without homes or livelihood or both. Mugabe defended the bulldozing of slums as necessary to snuff out thriving black market trade in scarce foreign exchange and other commodities that were in short supply.

"The magnitude of the crimes committed during Operation Murambatsvina demand an international response. We call for this case to be dealt with as a matter of urgent priority by the Security Council, in order to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to book and to prevent any recurrence," the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said. COHRE is an international group that promotes and protects people's housing rights. "The Zimbabwe government's mass eviction campaign was a crime against humanity and could be referred to the International Criminal Court by the United Nations Security Council," COHRE added in a statement issued from The Hague, where the ICC sits. The statement was due for official release to the public on Wednesday morning. Local human rights groups say many victims of "Operation Murambatsvina" are still without accommodation and in the capital Harare some houses which were built for the victims are yet to be occupied.

Zimbabwe is suffering a severe economic crisis, which has been marked by the world's highest inflation rate of above 3 700 percent, record unemployment nearing 85 percent and shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel. This has escalated political tension in the country as urban workers threaten to engage in crippling strikes to press for better salaries and working conditions. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has said the slum clearance exercise - conducted in its urban strongholds - was targeted at its supporters, who have voted against Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party since 2000. "The independent legal opinion on crimes against humanity concludes that there is sufficient evidence that the crimes of forced displacement, Article 7(1)(d) of the Rome Statute, was committed during Operation Murambatsvina," the COHRE legal findings said.

"The victims were lawfully present in Zimbabwe and the evictions were a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population as part of a State policy, and were not justified on grounds permitted under international law," according to COHRE. "The opinion also finds that the evictions constitute an inhumane act under Article 7(1)(k) due to the immense physical and mental suffering meted out to the victims. The Security Council therefore has authority to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court under the Rome Statute," it added. The ZLHR executive director Arnold Tsunga said the world could not continue watching powerlessly as Harare trampled on the rights of ordinary Zimbabweans adding that "Operation Murambatsvina" should be referred to the ICC. Zimbabwe Watch, a Dutch-based organisation, also released a separate legal opinion indicating that the Zimbabwe evictions could be prosecuted in various national jurisdictions, most notably in South Africa, Netherlands , Germany and Spain.

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