A Zimbabwe family stand in front of what used to be their home in Plumtree. Two toddlers died when their homes were razed in a demolition drive targeting illegal buildings that has left hundreds of thousands homeless.(AFP/File)
Posted on 06/23/2005 4:29:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
HARARE (AFP) - Two toddlers died when their homes were razed in a demolition drive targeting illegal buildings that has left hundreds of thousands homeless as the world's eight most industrialised nations warned Zimbabwe to stop the crackdown.
Zimbabwe's state-run Herald daily Thursday quoted police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena as asking police and others taking part in Operation Murambatsvina, meaning "Get rid of trash", to be careful when demolishing shops and houses.
One-and-half-year-old Terence Munyaka died Sunday from head injuries sustained when the walls of his house came crashing down in the town of Chitungwiza, outside Harare.
Two-year-old Charmaine Nyika died on June 8 after a wall that had been partially razed collapsed on her in a working class Harare suburb.
For five weeks, bands of armed police have used excavators, bulldozers and sledgehammers to demolish and at times torch backyard shacks and shop stalls across Zimbabwe.
The exercise, which comes in winter and against the backdrop of crippling food and fuel shortages and spiralling unemployment and triple-digit inflation, has left between 200,000 and 1.5 million people homeless according to the United Nations and the opposition respectively.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) club of wealthy countries Thursday rapped Zimbabwe.
"We discussed the current situation and the ongoing police operations which have reportedly left thousands of the most vulnerable homeless and destitute," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told a news conference in London following a one-day meeting with his G8 counterparts.
"And we call on the government of Zimbabwe to abide by the rule of law and respect human rights," he said.
The G8 is due hold a summit in Scotland in early July to discuss the fate of a multi-billion-dollar rescue plan for Africa which underpins good governance and zero-corruption in the world's poorest continent.
The G8 warning came as London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International led more than 200 non-governmental organisations in urging the United Nations and the African Union to exert pressure on President Robert Mugabe to stop the drive.
"The AU and the relevant bodies of the UN ... cannot fail to act in the face of gross and widespread human rights violations and appalling human misery," Amnesty and the other bodies said in a joint statement released simultaneously in Harare and four other African cities.
Zimbabwean lawyers have meanwhile lined up a series of lawsuits against the clean-up campaign.
"We have drafted a number of court applications against the still continuing violations and abuses," Rangu Nyamurundira from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) groups told AFP on Thursday.
"But we are having problems getting people who will represent the affected people as the applicants. Most of the people fear they will be victimised if they take the government to court," he said.
ZLHR wants to challenge the legality of the government drive and the detention of displaced people in camps until they are relocated in rural areas, saying it amounts to abduction and illegal detention.
In addition to the clean-up drive, police had earlier this week announced a ban on farming in urban areas but government and municipal officials have retracted that statement.
"Urban agriculture has not been banned. Government respects its contribution to the national food basket," said Harare's provincial administrator Musavaya Reza.
The police statement had sent shock waves especially with the looming food shortages and the specter of starvation that threatens some 4.5 million Zimbabweans, according to UN World Food Programme chief James Morris who recently visited the country.
A Zimbabwe family stand in front of what used to be their home in Plumtree. Two toddlers died when their homes were razed in a demolition drive targeting illegal buildings that has left hundreds of thousands homeless.(AFP/File)
This image made from a recent video released Thursday June 23, 2005 by Solidarity Peace Trust shows evicted residents sleeping on the side of a road with a fire in the background in Harare, Zimbabwe. Rights groups showed the smuggled video Thursday of Zimbabweans living in the open in the winter cold after the government tore down their homes in what it describes as an urban renewal project. Police prevent journalists from filming the demolitions, so the footage was collected clandestinely by the church-based Solidarity Peace Trust. (AP Photo/Solidarity Peace Trust via APTN)
This image made from an undated but recent video released Thursday June 23, 2005 by Solidarity Peace Trust shows a man passing burning shacks in Harare, Zimbabwe. Rights groups showed the smuggled video Thursday of Zimbabweans living in the open in the winter cold after the government tore down their homes in what it describes as an urban renewal project. Police prevent journalists from filming the demolition campaign, so the footage was collected clandestinely by the church-based Solidarity Peace Trust. (AP Photo/Solidarity Peace Trust via APTN)
This June 4, 2005 satellite image released by DigitalGlobe shows a shantytown in Harare, Zimbabwe after it was demolished in what the government describes as an urban renewal campaign. At news conferences in Africa and at the United Nations, more than 200 international human rights and civic groups said the campaign, known as Operation Drive Out Trash, was 'a grave violation of international human rights law and a disturbing affront to human dignity.' International rights groups said at least 300,000 people have lost their homes throughout the country by conservative estimates. The United Nations puts the figure as high as 1.5 million, though Zimbabwe police only acknowledge about 120,000. The Zimbabwean government pledged Thursday June 23, 2005 to build new houses for those it has made homeless. (AP Photo/ Digital Globe, HO)
Mugabe's a maniac...we knew that many years ago when one of the candidates running against him, Ndabaningi Sithole (pronounced Sitoli), disappeared during the very first campaign after majority rule was instituted.
Where some on the SCOTUS draw their eminent domain ruling basis from?
This image made from a recent video released Thursday June 23, 2005 by Solidarity Peace Trust shows a building being demolished by a bulldozer in Harare, Zimbabwe. Rights groups showed a smuggled video Thursday of Zimbabweans living in the open in the winter cold after the government tore down their homes in what it describes as an urban renewal project. Police prevent journalists from filming the demolition campaign, so the footage was collected clandestinely by the church-based Solidarity Peace Trust. (AP Photo/Solidarity Peace Trust via APTN)
Oh yeah, right.
Where's that Carter girl? Didn't she used to object to this sort of thing when done in a neighboring country?
Not a warning from the G8 (heavy on the sarcasm).
Mugabe will be getting a scolding from Sir Bob Geldof too.
Unfortunately, it can now happen here thanks to the Supreme Court.
yup
Remind me again, why Tony Blair wants to forgive the debt...?
Hey, didn't we ban those guys from FreeRepublic? I remember their pictures of United Nations armored vehicles on railcars in Louisiana, and the containment fences built hither and yon.
You don't imagine they were right?
Now Mugabe is tearing down cities and "relocating" people to the country. Mugabe sounds more and more like Pol Pot.
And Jack Straw also let Mugabe have it.
"We discussed the current situation and the ongoing police operations which have reportedly left thousands of the most vulnerable homeless and destitute,"
"And we call on the government of Zimbabwe to abide by the rule of law and respect human rights,"
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Mugabe must have been Durbin-ized.
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Or we'll strip you of your seat on the Human Rights Commission or whatever panel they hold seats on.
No news here. Now, back to Rachel Corrie commentary.
The whole Commonwealth has been saying that for decades.
Except when they are saying Mugabe needs another chance.
Mugabe the murderer.
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