Posted on 12/08/2005 11:46:42 AM PST by 1066AD
Zimbabwe in meltdown - UN envoy
Zimbabwe is in "meltdown" says United Nations humanitarian chief Jan Egeland following a visit to the country. He also said President Robert Mugabe's rejection of tents for hundreds of thousands of people evicted and made homeless this year is "puzzling".
Some 700,000 people lost their jobs or homes in a government demolition programme, an earlier UN report says.
"This disastrous eviction campaign was the worst possible thing, at the worst possible time," Mr Egeland said.
The government disputes the 700,000 UN figure and says it carried out slum clearances to reduce crime and overcrowding.
"The situation is very serious in Zimbabwe when life expectancy goes from more than 60 years to just over 30 years in a 15-year span - it's a meltdown, it's not just a crisis, it's a meltdown," Mr Egeland told the BBC in Johannesburg, immediately after his four-day trip to Zimbabwe.
He pointed to "the Aids pandemic, the food insecurity, the total collapse in social services".
Tents
Mr Egeland, the UN under secretary for humanitarian affairs, said donors had an obligation to help despite disagreements with the government - of which the offer of tents was the most notable.
"If they [tents] are good enough for people in Europe and the United States who have lost their houses, why are they not good enough for Zimbabwe?" he said.
ZIMBABWE CRISIS Life expectancy 30 years 3m expecting food aid 20% adult HIV prevalence 3,000 Aids deaths each week 500,000 left homeless this year 200,000 lost livelihoods Inflation has reached 400% Crisis compounded by drought
Mr Mugabe's spokesman said Zimbabweans were "not tent people" and they wanted the UN to build permanent homes. Mr Egeland said the government's rationale for the eviction campaign was deeply flawed.
"The eviction campaign seems to me wholly irrational in all of its aspects - you lowered the standard of living rather than increasing it."
'Extremely serious'
Mr Mugabe last week agreed to let the UN provide food aid to some three million people over the next year.
"The humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is extremely serious and it is deteriorating," Mr Egeland said.
After "frank" talks with Mr Mugabe on Tuesday, Mr Egeland said they had agreed that the international community should do more to meet humanitarian needs in Zimbabwe.
"Our message to the government was to help us, to help you, to help your people."
And when asked why donors should fund the $276m being requested to save lives in Zimbabwe, Mr Egeland said "it is in no way punishing the government, to not help women and children in great need".
Mr Egeland spent Monday meeting people living in camps and said some of them were living in inadequate conditions - much worse than before.
When questioned on whether UN staff on the ground were negligent by failing to help Zimbabweans by seeking to avoid confrontation, he said he had raised the issue of criminal behaviour with Mr Mugabe.
"It's a criminal act to bulldoze someone's home who owned their land - there should be prosecutions."
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4508078.stm
The funny thing is Mugabe has been desperately courting the Chinese for a couple of years- ordering his people to learn Chinese, etc. The Chinese have pretty much told him to pound sand. Zimbabwe is such a wreck that it isn't even worth stealing anymore.
No one can help these people until they first decide to help themselves. After decades of seeing massive aid go to Africa, only to see Africa become more corrupt, backward, and dependent and less appreciative, I have compassion fatigue up to my eyeballs.
No more welfare (i.e., my tax dollars) for Africa. The Zimbabweans are going to have to screw up their courage and take Mugabe and his thuggish buddies out and clean up the mess themselves.
(And if I hear Bush "pledge" hundreds of millions to this hellhole, I'm going to go ballistic.)
Here is a hint for you -- MUGABE IS A MURDEROUS, INSANE THUG THAT YOU CONTINUE TO SUPPORT!!
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btt
(choke)(choke)
Well? None of us get out of here alive. Even us rich Americans.
"It's a criminal act to bulldoze someone's home who owned their land - there should be prosecutions." ..."and if there aren't...I will be deeply saddened.
Sorry, but they did. There was also 'campaign' appearances throughout the country during the runup to the election. Apparently noone in Zim thought Mugabe deserved a .308 to the head.
It would be fine with me if we could arrange to have his own people take care of the problem - and drag his body, and those of his administration, through the streets.
But I do not want America to be seen as the force behind the action; Zimbabwe is Haiti, multiplied 20 times over. Nor do I want the US on the economic hook for a bailout.
If the African "tinpot dictators" are so good at running the UN, lets let them try their hand at "nation building" in their own backyard.!
After "frank" talks with Mr Mugabe on Tuesday, Mr Egeland said they had agreed that the international community should do more to meet humanitarian needs in Zimbabwe.
Why? It is clear the problem is Mugabe. Let the people throw him out.
cover a terrorist's head with pantyhose and the human rights groups ar all over you. Murder a million Africans at a pop and the U.N. is "troubled."
I suppose terrorists are mostly white, and that makes the difference.
Shmuck, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you -cheap!
As if some other self styled eleven-star general wearing a starched camouflage uniform with golden fringed shoulderboards won't step up to fill the void.
Sure, kill Mugabe. Fine. Just let someone else but the United States do it this time.
The country was far better off as Rhodesia.
oh please, they obviously know that the US will automatically pay for about 25% of this. That is not the job of the UN, their job is to chat and meet and chat and meet and chat
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