Posted on 06/23/2005 7:13:47 PM PDT by blam
Children die beneath Mugabe's bulldozers
By Alistair Leithead in Harare
(Filed: 24/06/2005)
A piece of red plastic tape flutters from a post outside the remains of Lavender Nyika's home in Tafara - a place outside Harare which means "we are happy".
But there is little happiness here. The tape is a traditional sign representing a loss in the family, and while hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have lost their homes, few have lost a daughter.
Lavender Nyika's daughter Charmaine was crushed to death
Charmaine was two years old and inside the family home when the police came with their bulldozers and levelled the house.
All that is left is the foundations, a pile of rubble and a small dirt grave with a wooden cross and a girl's name scrawled on the back of a piece of scrap metal.
"The police came. They had been sent to destroy the house," said Herbert Nyika, Charmaine's father. "They knocked down the building, the walls; they smashed everything. This was when our child was trapped inside. She died there." Her mother, Lavender, said: "I blame the government because it is they who instructed the police to do what they did. It is terrible. I have lost my daughter in such a strange way."
She added: "Of course they have managed to clean up the city but at the same time they have brought suffering to the people - property destruction, homelessness and now the death of a child."
The family is poor and their home was a small building in the back garden of a bigger house.
The Zimbabwean government has spent the past few years targeting white farmers, those with land and wealth; now it seems to be picking on the poor.
The Zimbabwean press yesterday admitted that two toddlers had died in the demolition drive - Charmaine, two, who died two weeks ago, and Terence Munyaka, 18 months, who died on Sunday from head injuries. As outrage rose around the world, the Zimbabwean police called on its officers to exercise more care. In London Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said on behalf of the G8 countries: "We call on the government of Zimbabwe to abide by the rule of law and respect human rights."
Every day in Harare, in Bulawayo, in the towns and cities of Zimbabwe, police in riot gear are systematically moving from suburb to suburb forcing people from their homes. Bulldozers with their buckets raised are silhouetted on the skyline.
The scale of the clearance is so great there is too much work for the police to do - they are now forcing the people to destroy their own homes, or charging them a fee for demolition. On the roads are wheelbarrows piled high, trucks overloaded with cupboards, beds, mattresses - thousands and thousands of people making their way somewhere, but there is nowhere to go. Many are living in the open - their furniture arranged around them as if the walls were still there.
In Bulawayo, under the cover of darkness, a group of people huddled around a fire, a large pot of maize meal bubbling away on a wood stove. "They came to my home and they burned it down," one man said as he took his turn stirring the pot.
"They say they have a strategy, they say they are clearing up the towns," he says, confused as to why his home was destroyed, but too scared to speak against the government.
Old women, sick men and young mothers drag their mattresses inside the church hall, their few blankets all there is to keep away the bitterly cold African winter air.
The churches are full, their lavatories are overflowing, the people have nowhere else to go and so the government has created a solution. Well over 2,000 people have been moved to Caledonia Farm, a resettlement camp outside Harare, with no clean water, sanitation or access to food.
The entrance was blocked by police. Intelligence agents mingled among the poor and the homeless. We crept in through the bush to catch a glimpse of the camp, knowing to be caught would mean a two-year prison sentence.
Again people had arranged their furniture around them, huddled together under plastic sheets and blankets. A desperate mass of humanity forced from their homes by the government.
Some say the reason is political retribution, to punish the urban electorate for voting for the opposition.
Others say it will scatter the angry and dispossessed before the seeds of revolution can be sown; and others look even further ahead. They believe that forcing the people to rural poverty will make them dependent on the state for food and blankets and buy political patronage.
Either way hundreds of thousands of people are homeless, cold, destitute and desperate.
What are we doing in Iraq? Or elsewhere in the world for that matter? I want to know where the UN is but if the US is going to stick their nose in Iraq and Bosnia, then why not in Zimbabwe?
I agree with you.
We are in Iraq because Iraq under Hussein was heavily involved in sponcering terrorism against the USA, had WMDs, and did not honor the terms of the truce negotiated after the last time we went to war with them.
Are you really so ignorant of recent history and incapable of connecting any of the dots?
Are you also going to pretend to be shocked when/if we actually get around to attacking France?
What about when we target Mexico and/or Canada?
Rent a clue.
Thanks to Anthony Kennedy, who clearly relied on (Zimbabwe's) "international law" for his eminent domain support, we may soon see such scenes as this in states around the nation, as "undesireable" homes and people are removed in favor of condos and offices to repay bribing fatcat developers.
Perhaps you can take the lead on this one?
Who the hell are you calling ignorant? You need to get a clue yourself. Don't insult me and expect an answer. Have a nice day.
No one cares. Just look at the responses in this thread alone.
The US may eventually get around to doing something, but we took over a decade and hundreds of thousands were slaughtered under Hussein before we did anything in Iraq. Why can't the people of Zimbabwe stand up to Mugabe and bring his reign to an end. It may be bloody, but it will also be bloody if the people of Zimbabwe wait on the US or UN to do anything.
unfortunately - you are very right. Time and time again we see hundreds of thousands being killed in Africa - the world just shrugs its shoulders. What a shame!
Prayers to the innocent children killed.
LOL!
Ignorance is easily corrected by education.
Stupidity is not.
My mistake was believeng you were merely ignorant.
I am sorry you were offended!
ROTFLMAO!
Amazing I used to like you as a freeper but I'm not stupid and don't take being called as such lightly. Yes you've offended me if that makes you happy. Clearly it does something any person should find disturbing. Hope you enjoy the feeling.
***Please - get off your backside and try help! It really is a horrific situation and good people need to stand up and stop doing nothing!***
Pres. Bush has thrown MANY of OUR $$$$ towards helping 'your' country.
Those $$$$ have NOT gone towards helping the oppressed. The $$$$ have ABETTED the oppressors.
The good people of the USA ARE doing something, every time the Pres. takes our tax $$$ to send to your country, for NO results.
How' bout if the good people of YOUR country, stand up to start doing to help themselves?????
How 'bout if your good people stand up/stand TOGETHER to FIGHT BACK?????
And, if your good people think that's an unreasonable expectation....then write to Oprah.
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