 The United Nations on Friday urged Zimbabwe's government to halt its campaign of evicting urban poor and demolishing their shacks around the country, calling it a clear violation of human rights.
The Zimbabwe action, which the government calls a cleanup campaign, represents a form of apartheid and must be halted, said Miloon Kothari, a U.N. expert on the right to adequate housing. "We are seeing in the world, and Zimbabwe is a good example now, the creation of a new kind of apartheid where the rich and the poor are being segregated," Kothari told reporters. Over 200,000 people have already lost their homes and a further 30,000 people have been detained since the government began the crackdown on May 19, he said. "The vast majority are homeless in the streets," Kothari said. "This kind of a mass eviction drive is a classic case where the intention appears to be that Harare become a city for the rich, for the middle class, for those that are well-off ... and the poor are to be pushed away."
| So, okay, now what are you going to do about it? |
Amnesty International has also condemned the crackdown, saying it has left whole communities without shelter and destroyed thousands of livelihoods. It said police and other security forces are using excessive force - burning homes, destroying property and beating individuals.
| Bet they didn't describe it as a 'gulag'. |
Thousands of street vendors have been arrested and their wares seized. Police using torches, sledgehammers and bulldozers have burned and demolished kiosks and homes of the urban poor in shantytowns around the country, leaving thousands homeless. The evictions apparently are a result of the notice Harare's government-appointed Mayor Sekesai Makwavarara gave in May to dwellers in the city's myriad backyard shacks. He told them they had until July to vacate, citing health grounds. About half the city's poor live in such shacks. The government has not explained why it began demolitions before the July deadline.
"Okay, here's my plan: We've won the civil war and kicked the white government out. Next, we're going to kick all the white farmers out and take their land!"
"Right, boss!"
"Then we're going to kill everybody who opposes us!"
"Right, boss!"
"Then we're gonna kill everybody who doesn't oppose us!"
"Uhhhh... Right, boss."
"Then we're gonna have a purge and kill each other!"
"Uhhh... Right." |
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