UN probes Zimbabwe destruction

AN envoy for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew to Zimbabwe to investigate a so-called urban renewal campaign that has destroyed the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans.

Hours before the arrival yesterday of Anna Tibaijuka, head of UN Habitat, a state-run newspaper reported that the government was winding down the campaign dubbed Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash.

The Sunday Mail report was dismissed by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Party spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said the destruction of shanty towns continued unabated over the weekend in the southern border town of Beitbridge.

Police have torched and bulldozed tens of thousands of shacks, street stalls and even the vegetable gardens planted by the urban poor at a time of acute food shortages, since launching the program May 19. Estimates of the number of people affected range between 300,000 and 1.5 million.

President Robert Mugabe says the campaign is necessary to fight crime and maintain health standards in Zimbabwe’s cities. But the opposition, which has its strongholds among the urban poor, says the blitz is intended to punish its supporters who voted against the government in recent parliamentary elections.

Mugabe told his party he had agreed to meet with Annan’s envoy “so as to enable the secretary-general to understand and appreciate what we are trying to do”.

The government’s campaign - in which 42,000 people have been arrested, fined or had their goods confiscated - has provoked an international outcry.

The independent Sunday Standard newspaper reported at least six people have died. They include two children crushed under collapsing walls, two more children and a woman who died of pneumonia after being left exposed to the winter cold.