UN slams Operation Drive Out Trash

But what are they actually going to do about it? Are we going to see any
action from the UN or is it just more words?

UN slams Zimbabwe?s slum destruction

By Nick Wadhams

United Nations - 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, according to
excerpts of a harshly worded UN report. The report details the devastating
extent of Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, for the first time. It
says 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,"
says the executive summary, obtained late Thursday by The Associated Press.
The report, using unusually harsh language for the United Nations, says the
operation clearly violates international law and demands the government stop
the destruction immediately.

Anna Tibaijuka, a UN 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. The Zimbabwe government was given
the final report on Wednesday but has made no public comment. The full report
was to be released to the public on Friday. President Robert Mugabe's
government has defended the operation as an urban cleanup drive, and has
promised to help the displaced rebuild. His rivals say the campaign is aimed
at breaking up opposition strongholds among the urban poor and forcing them
into rural areas where they can be more easily controlled by chiefs
sympathetic to the government. 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 can't afford such a project at a time of triple-digit
inflation and a severe food crisis, the report said.

On Wednesday, police raided nine churches in the second-largest city of
Bulawayo, rounding up people sheltering there since their homes were
destroyed. Between 50 and 100 people were arrested at each site, said the Rev.
Kevin Thompson of the city's Presbyterian Church. "It was pretty brutal and
horrific," he said. "They had elderly folk, and they were piling them onto
vehicles; they were frog-marching children ... who had been asleep, and
Bulawayo is very cold at the moment." The executive summary seen by AP does
not assign blame for the destruction, saying only that it was launched on the
advice of a few people who were not identified. Yet, it suggests that the act
might qualify as a crime against humanity and urged Zimbabwe to prosecute
those responsible. 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 massive international humanitarian
operation to help the masses of poor people left without housing or jobs.
Tibaijuka is the Tanzanian head of Nairobi-based UN 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 UN
diplomats said they are hoping to get Tibaijuka to brief members on the report
next week.

Edith M. Lederer and Michael Hartnack contributed to this story

Jules
There are two respites from the miseries of life - music and cats.
.

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