Fuente : Christian Aid
http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/

Zimbabwe's operation 'Drive Out Trash' leaving thousands homeless

/noticias.info/ Christian Aid's Judith Melby has just returned from Zimbabwe. She describes the scene as the 'clean up' operation forces hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

The government of Zimbabwe embarked on Operation Murambatsvina, or 'Drive Out Trash' on 19 May 2005. Hundreds of thousands of people have been made homeless, homes and shop kiosks have been burned and thousands have since been detained.

The official reason for this operation is that the government is acting against 'economic saboteurs'. Few people believe this. One common view is that this is simple revenge against urban areas, which traditionally vote for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party.

Many people have noted the parallels with the forced removals of the apartheid era in South Africa. Whatever the reason for this policy, it is a flagrant abuse of human rights: people are being deprived of shelter, food, medicine and education.

Hatcliffe, a suburb of the capital Harare, is now a wasteland. All the homes have been destroyed. According to its MP, Trudy Stevenson, 6-8,000 people were living in Hatcliffe before the clearances. But government officials told them they must return to their rural villages. Even that is difficult as fuel is in short supply and vehicle owners are profiting from the situation by dramatically raising their prices.

I first visited Hatcliffe a week after the bulldozers had destroyed all the houses. Where once there had been tidy rows of homes, there was just rubble. Even the rows of latrines had been vandalised, the corrugated roofs torn off. Men were sitting in the ruins of their homes, staring at the remains of their worldly goods. Some were burning the debris for warmth. It was early evening and the temperature was dropping rapidly. In the winter months the temperature at night in Zimbabwe can drop as low as zero.

'People are sleeping in the open,' said one man. 'We are counting the stars now.'

One week later the scene was even more desolate. Security officials had returned and burnt everything; all that remained were scorch marks on the ground. As I approached Hatcliffe, a police lorry full of people, the roof piled high with furniture and window frames, was leaving. There was not a soul left – everyone had been ferried out to holding camps.

Caledonia Farm, east of Harare, is one such camp. Christian Care, a Christian Aid partner, is the only agency working there. It is providing food and blankets for some 2,000 people. It is also gathering information in order to respond nationally.

The growing number of internally displaced people will have a severe impact on Christian Aid's humanitarian work, which is focused on school feedings and HIV/AIDS projects.

The heads of the Roman Catholic Church in Zimbabwe issued a statement on 19 June 2005, saying the government crackdown on its citizens 'cries out for vengeance to God.'

'Any claim to justify this operation....becomes totally groundless in view of the cruel and inhumane means that have been used. We condemn the gross injustice done to the poor.'

The clean-up operation is in clear violation of several international agreements which the Government of Zimbabwe has ratified.

Article 11 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights guarantees the right of all children to education. Already more than 300,000 children of informal traders and city families have been forced to drop out of school.

Article 5 of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Treaty listed poverty alleviation and support for the socially disadvantaged as one of SADC's main objectives. But the evictions are further impoverishing Zimbabweans.

The economy has been reduced to such a state that for an estimated 80% of Zimbabweans, working in the informal economy is the only option left to them.

Earlier this month, Miloon Kothari, who is the UN Human Rights' Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, reminded the Zimbabwean authorities of their obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, which the country ratified in 1991 and which bars such evictions unless strict conditions are met.

One of the conditions is that 'evictions should never result in rendering individuals homeless or vulnerable to the violations of other human rights. Governments must therefore ensure that adequate alternative housing or resettlement is available for all those affected before executing an eviction order.'

Miloon Kothari asked the Zimbabwean government for an urgent reply to his appeal. So far the government has not responded.

On 21 June, 2005 the United Nations announced it would send a special envoy to Zimbabwe to investigate the demolition of homes and the evictions of traders. notas_de_prensa_archivo