U.N. Slams Zimbabwe on Slum Destruction
-Nick Wadhams, Associated Press: July 22, 2005
Zimbabwe's destruction of urban slums is a "disastrous venture" that has left 700,000 people without homes or jobs, violated international law and created a grave humanitarian crisis, a harshly worded U.N. report said Friday.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the report was "profoundly distressing." A Zimbabwean opposition member called it "music in my ears."
The report detailed the devastating extent of Operation Murambatsvina, or "Drive Out Trash", for the first time. It said a further 2.4 million people have been affected by the countrywide campaign that began with little warning on May 19 and has seen thousands of shantytowns, ramshackle markets and makeshift homes demolished.
"While purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, (the operation) was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering," the report said.
The report, using unusually harsh language for the United Nations, said the operation clearly violated international law, and it demanded that the government immediately stop the destruction.
Anna Tibaijuka, a U.N. envoy sent to Zimbabwe to study the effects of the campaign, delivered the document to Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this week. She suggested an independent probe could help decide if there was criminal negligence leading to any deaths.
Annan urged Zimbabwe to stop the destruction and sought to shift the attention from blame to rebuilding.
"Criticism, while fully justified, is not enough," Annan said in a statement. "We have a duty to help those in need."
The Zimbabwe government was given the final report Wednesday but has not commented on it publicly.
The state-owned Herald quoted the country's U.N. representative, Boniface Chidyausiku, as saying: "The President will make a comment at the appropriate time. Zimbabwe is not under any inquisition to warrant 48 hours of responding."
He demanded the international community raise funds so Zimbabwe can provide cheaper housing for its people.
"One would call upon Britain and the European Union to stop their campaign to vilify our economy. Were it not for their sanctions, our economy wouldn't be where it is today."
The opposition in Zimbabwe and human rights activists welcomed the report.
"That is wonderful — music in my ears," said opposition legislator Trudy Stevenson of the Movement for Democratic Change.
She welcomed Tibaijuka's description of the evictions as a breach of international law, recalling they left at least 20,000 of her constituents without shelter in the midwinter cold. The sick and elderly had died and children had been left orphaned, she said.
"So let's get them (the government) in the international courts," Stevenson said.
Stevenson's MDC alleged that "Operation Murambatsvina" aimed to victimize those who voted for the opposition in March 31 parliamentary elections and drive them back to rural areas, where they could be intimidated by blocking their access to relief food.
President Robert Mugabe's government has defended the operation as an urban cleanup drive and has promised to help the displaced rebuild.
But the report said that even if the operation is an urban cleanup drive, the campaign — which some have called Operation Restore Order — has been a "crash" operation that will take Zimbabwe years to recover from.
"Even if motivated by a desire to ensure a semblance of order in the chaotic manifestations of rapid urbanization and rising poverty characteristic of African cities, nonetheless Operation Restore Order turned out to be a disastrous venture," the report said.
The government has pledged $325 million to provide 1.2 million houses or building plots by 2008, but economists say Zimbabwe cannot afford such a project at a time of triple-digit inflation and a severe food crisis, the report said.
U.N. agencies estimate 4 million Zimbabweans need relief following the seizure of 5,000 white-owned farms and the collapse of the agricultural-based economy.
The report said the government is collectively to blame and that the campaign began because of "improper advice by overzealous officials."
Tibaijuka's report said the clearance campaign was based on a set of colonial-era laws and policies "that were used as a tool of segregation and social exclusion." The African nation gained independence from Britain in 1980.
"The humanitarian consequences of Operation Restore Order are enormous," she said.
She called for a large-scale international humanitarian operation to help the masses of poor people left without housing or jobs.
Tibaijuka is the Tanzanian head of Nairobi-based U.N. Habitat, which deals with the plight of cities.
African nations on the 15-member Security Council have so far kept the crisis in Zimbabwe off the council's agenda. But several U.N. diplomats said they are hoping to get Tibaijuka to brief members on the report next week.
