ZIMBABWE: UNITED NATIONS ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA HOLDS TALKS WITH PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE BEFORE TOURING SITES OF DEMOLISHED HOMES

Record ID: 338253

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: UNITED NATIONS ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA HOLDS TALKS WITH PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE BEFORE TOURING SITES OF DEMOLISHED HOMES
  • Date: 30th June 2005
  • Summary: (BN12) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (JUNE 29, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. MV UN ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA WALKING IN AND GREETING PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE 0.08 2. WIDE UN ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA INTRODUCING HER DELEGATION TO PRESIDENT MUGABE 3. SLV DELEGATION 0.12 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT MUGABE, ZIMBABWE PRESIDENT SAYING: "We couldn't have you last week, it was a busy week for us." 0.19 5. SCU PRESIDENT MUGABE SITTING 0.22 6. SCU UN ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA SITTING 0.24 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UN SPECIAL ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA, PRESENTING THE UN REPORT TO PRESIDENT MUGABE, SAYING: "This book will show, in Africa for example, seventy two percent of African urban dwellers live in slums, Asia forty six percent, Latin America thirty percent and in the western countries six percent, so it's a global challenge." 8. MEDIA WAITING OUTSIDE 0.47 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UN SPECIAL ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA SAYING: "Very good discussions, constructive discussions. The challenges of HABITAT agenda and how we implement it, very good discussions, thank you." 0.58 (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT MUGABE, ZIMBABWE PRESIDENT SAYING: "We talked about the clean up operation. I briefed her about it all in terms of the background, the preparations we had, that we had wanted to do this before the election but then we feared that it would be said that we were preparing the way for our own victory and affecting the position of the MDC." 1.28 10. SCU DELEGATION OUTSIDE STATE HOUSE 1.33 11. LAS BANNER READING, 'OPERATION MURAMBATSVINA OFFICIAL LAUNCH - LETS REGAIN OUR SHINE' 1.37 (W4) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (RECENT - JUNE 03, 2005) (REUTERS) 12. SLV BULLDOZER KNOCKING DOWN HOUSES; MV WOMAN CRYING; WOMAN CRYING, WATCHING HOUSE BEING DEMOLISHED; SLV BULLDOZER DEMOLISHING HOUSES (6 SHOTS) 2.09 (BN12) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (JUNE 29, 2005) (REUTERS) 13. TRACKING SHOTS RUBBLE REMAINS ALONG ROUTE AFTER DEMOLITION OF HOUSES 2.30 14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UN SPECIAL ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA SPEAKING TO VICTIM OF THE OPERATION SAYING: "Now I see a lot of bricks here, what happened here, what was here before. (VICTIM SAYS, 'THERE WAS ONE CABIN HERE AND ABOUT HERE THERE WERE FOUR CABINS, THEY ARE NOT CABINS, BRICK HOUSES WITH FOUR ROOMS') UN SPECIAL ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA SAYING: "People had built them, they were your houses? (VICTIM SAYS, 'I BUILT THEM UP MYSELF') UN SPECIAL ENVOY ANNA TIBAIJUKA SAYING: "You built them, ok." (VICTIM SAYS, 'YES') 2.56 15. SLV SPECIAL ENVOY'S MOTORCADE DRIVING AWAY 3.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 15th July 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HARARE, ZIMBABWE
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Reuters ID: LVA51TA0XLVPSJB4JJ8KP51I3XG
  • Story Text: UN envoy has talks with Zimbabwe's Mugabe before
    visiting sites of demolished homes.

    A UN special envoy said she had "very good"
    discussions with President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday (June
    29, 2005) about Zimbabwe's widely condemned urban crackdown,
    dubbed "Operation Restore Order", that has left an
    estimated 300,000 people homeless.

    Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of housing agency
    UN-HABITAT, has been in Zimbabwe since Sunday (June 26) on
    a mission to assess the crackdown and after the meeting
    headed to Harare's oldest township of Mbare, one of the
    worst hit by the operation.

    "We had very good discussions, constructive
    discussion," she told journalists after one-and-a-half
    hours of talks with Mugabe. She offered no further details.

    Western countries and organisations including Britain,
    the United States, the Commonwealth and the European Union
    have criticised the operation, which has caused the deaths
    of at least two children crushed in demolished houses.

    Mugabe told journalists separately that he had told UN
    Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy his government wanted
    to implement the clean-up exercise before March 31
    parliamentary polls but had feared it would be misconstrued
    as an attempt to drive out opposition supporters.

    "I briefed her about it all in terms of the background,
    the preparations we had, that we had wanted to do this
    before the election but then we feared that it would be
    said that we were preparing the way for our own victory and
    affecting the position of the MDC," the 81-year-old leader
    said referring to the principal opposition group the
    Movement for Democratic Change.

    Critics of "Operation Restore Order" say the exercise
    has worsened the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans grappling
    with an economic crisis showing itself in record inflation,
    unemployment of over 70 percent and acute shortages of
    foreign currency, fuel and food.

    Houses and shops have been ripped apart in the campaign
    by President Robert Mugabe's government to clean up urban
    slums it says are a haven for black-market traders and
    other criminals.

    The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
    (MDC) has accused Mugabe's government of using the clean-up
    campaign to target opposition supporters in urban areas
    where it won most of the seats in March parliamentary
    elections.

    Mugabe's government has defended the demolition
    operation, saying the black market trade in scarce foreign
    currency and basic food commodities has thrived in
    shantytowns.

    Police say the action, which recently took place around
    the country, was their largest operation since Mugabe
    approved the seizure of white-owned farms to give to
    landless blacks in 2000, a step which plunged the country
    into turmoil.

    More than 22,000 people have been arrested in the
    campaign, which started by targeting street traders and
    then moved into dense urban shantytowns before taking on
    newer neighbourhoods, where many of the houses are
    suburban-style bungalows.

    Tibaijuka, together with her team and local UN staff
    immediately began a tour of some of the affected areas in
    Harare.

    On Monday (June 27) Mugabe's government vowed to step
    up a new housing programme to benefit those left homeless,
    which aid agencies have pegged at over 300,000. Zimbabwe's
    main opposition says the figure is now over 1.5 million.


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