Zimbabwe demolition goes on despite UN talks

A United Nations envoy sent to investigate shack demolitions in Zimbabwe held talks with President Robert Mugabe as the government campaign continued, with police setting fire to a settlement outside Harare.

Adding to the hardships in a country facing economic collapse and widespread hunger, Mugabe's government announced yesterday it was tripling the price of petrol and raising medical fees.

UN envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who arrived on Sunday, had been waiting to see Mugabe before touring affected areas.

A UN spokesman said she would start the tours after her meeting and see Harare’s poorest and most densely populated area – Mbare. School enrolment in Mbare is reported to have dropped by 50% because children have lost their homes.

Tibaijuka and Mugabe discussed “a number of issues concerning urban settlement”, state radio said.

Tibaijuka is in in the country at the request of UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, who is reported to have expressed concerns over the shack demolitions that have left up to 1.5 million people homeless.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says Operation Murambatsvina - Drive Out Trash – is meant to drive its supporters among the urban poor into rural areas where Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is dominant.

The Zimbabwean government says the blitz is not political and has already reduced crime rates and restored order to overcrowded and chaotic city centres.