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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Mugabe's obliteration of township exposed |
| 2006-05-31 |
| LONDON: Satellite images have been released for the first time showing the destruction caused in Zimbabwe by the Government's policy of forceful shanty town demolitions last year. Amnesty International yesterday released images of the rubble of a housing settlement that had been home to 30,000 of Zimbabwe's poorest people. The human rights group said the photos were proof that communities were destroyed. The images of Zimbabwe's Porta Farm settlement show the result of President Robert Mugabe's Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), which demolished townships to force people back to rural areas. The UN estimates that 700,000 of Zimbabwe's poorest residents have lost their homes or livelihoods, or both. "These satellite images are irrefutable evidence - if further evidence is even needed - that the Zimbabwean Government has obliterated entire communities, completely erased them from the map, as if they never existed," Africa Program director Kolawole Olaniyan said. The organisation commissioned the satellite images to demonstrate the destruction of Porta Farm, a large, informal settlement that was established 16 years ago and had schools, a children's centre and a mosque. Where Porta Farm formerly stood, the images show a desolate landscape of rubble and trees. On June 28, as part of Operation Murambatsvina, police destroyed the homes of Porta Farm residents, forcing thousands to sleep outdoors in the middle of winter. The Zimbabwean Government embarked on the operation in May last year, saying informal settlements were not desirable and that residents should return to rural areas. The communities affected by Operation Murambatsvina were among the poorest and most vulnerable in Zimbabwe. In several cases, such as Porta Farm, they had been the victims of previous forced evictions. They were given almost no notice before their homes were demolished and no alternative accommodation was provided. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 All around the world their are major cities with such shantytowns, whose leaders wish that they could do what Bob has done. Cities inundated with rural peasants who have no future. They have no schooling, no training, and nothing to do once they arrive. However, they have an incredible capacity to destroy, to tear down a city. Granted, such depradations are the fault of the government of the area in the first place. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-05-31 17:44 |