Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Harare (Fides Service)- The secretary general of the United Nations Organisation Kofi Annan has appointed Tanzanian Anna Kajumolo Tibaijuka UN special envoy to investigate alleged abuse by security forces during the Murambatsvina operation to ‘restore order’ started on 19 May by the government to remove illegal shelters and shops from the town. Since May at least 20,000 people have been arrested by the police. The UN said that about 200,000 people living in shacks in the outskirts of the main towns in the country have been made homeless. The operation was launched in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Chitungwiza, Rusape, Murehwa, Gweru, Masvingo and Kadoma. These homeless people suffer cold winter temperatures, as low as 6 grade Celsius by night.
The Catholic Bishops of Zimbabwe who had criticised operation Murambatsvina (see Fides 30 May 2005) recently issued a Pastoral Letter “the Cry of the Poor” in which they said “Countless numbers of men, women with babies, children of school age, the old and the sick, continue to sleep in the open air at winter temperatures near to freezing...These people urgently need shelter, food, clothing, medicines, etc. Any claim to justify this operation in view of a desired orderly end becomes totally groundless in view of the cruel and inhumane means that have been used. People have a right to shelter and that has been deliberately destroyed in this operation without much warning.
“While we all desire orderliness, alternative accommodation and sources of income should have been identified and provided before the demolitions and stoppage of informal trading. We condemn the gross injustice done to the poor.”.
The Bishop recalled that the Church’s teaching underlines respect for human dignity and gives the poor a central place.
Catholic news agency CISA in Nairobi spoke with priests and women religious living in areas affected by the clean up operation. One priest living among the poor in Sakubva shanty town outside Mutare said “in two weeks every shack was flattened which means that between 100,000 and 200,000 people were made homeless. Where could they go? All last week most of them lived in the open. Mow many have gone, some back to rural areas but only a few. Not many have homes in the country, and even those who refuse to go back because there is no food or income there. I think many have found a room perhaps in Sakubva or in other slum areas. Rent has risen and people are spending their scarce earnings on rent for the month and then what?”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 21/672005 righe 44 parole 513)
