ZIMBABWE: POLICE VOW TO CONTINUE WITH "OPERATION RESTORE ORDER" WHICH HAS LEFT THOUSANDS HOMELESS AFTER DEMOLITION OF ILLEGAL SLUMS

Record ID: 590765

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: POLICE VOW TO CONTINUE WITH "OPERATION RESTORE ORDER" WHICH HAS LEFT THOUSANDS HOMELESS AFTER DEMOLITION OF ILLEGAL SLUMS
  • Date: 3rd June 2005
  • Summary: (BN10) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (JUNE 03, 2005) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV GROUP OF RIOT POLICE 0.07 2. CLOSE OF SIGNBOARD "WELCOME TO JOSHUA MQABUKO NKOMO HEIGHTS" 0.14 3. WIDE OF BULLDOZER KNOCKING DOWN HOUSES 0.21 4. VARIOUS OF WOMAN CRYING, WATCHING HOUSES BEING DEMOLISHED 0.35 5. SLV POLICE WALKING THROUGH RUBBLE 0.42 6. CLOSE OF WOMAN CRYING 0.51 7. SLV (SOUNDBITE) (Shona) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN SAYING: "It doesn't matter, Mugabe has de-campaigned (made himself unpopular). It's an automatic de-campaign and he will not win again. I will never support ZANU-PF again. Very stupid. It's nonsense what they have done." 1.03 8. SLV WOMAN WALKING PASSING POLICE 1.11 9. SLV MAN WEARING ZANU PF T-SHIRT WATCHING DEMOLITION 1.17 10. SLV (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) WOMAN SHOWING HOUSING REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE SAYING "Who is going to compensate for this?" 1.24 11. CLOSE OF CERTIFICATE WITH NAME OF I.M.C. CHOMBO , HOUSING MINISTER 1.30 12. PULLOUT TO ANGRY WOMAN 1.36 13. WIDE OF BULLDOZER KNOCKING DOWN A WALL 1.43 14. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN SAYING: "I am very angry, I am very disappointed. No comment to the president, because I regard him as my father. Why should my father do this to me." 1.53 15. SLV POLICE IN TRUCK SITTING AND WATCHING 1.59 16. VARIOUS OF BULLDOZER KNOCKING DOWN HOUSES 2.09 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HARARE, ZIMBABWE
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Reuters ID: LVA9EUR6DURW8ZVZOIGG1W7BMZKH
  • Story Text: Zimbabwean police have vowed to continue with their
    campaign "Operation Restore Order", which has left thousands
    homeless.




    The United Nations believes 200,000 people have
    been left homeless by an eviction campaign, dubbed
    "Operation Restore Order", which continued in Zimbabwe on
    Friday (June 3).

    Houses were being bulldozed and piles of rubble lined
    the streets in some neighbourhoods. 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.

    Police took the two-week-old exercise to Harare's
    Kambuzuma suburb on Friday, demolishing houses built under
    a scheme authorities say is illegal but which residents
    claimed had Mugabe's blessing.

    Dozens of riot police kept hundreds of residents at bay
    as the bulldozer ploughed through buildings.

    "I will never support ZANU-PF again. Very stupid. It's
    nonsense what they have done," said one woman watching the
    demolition.

    "I am very angry. I am very disappointed. No comment to
    the president, because I regard him as my father. Why
    should my father do this to me," said another woman, who
    also asked who was going to compensate residents.

    Police say the action taking 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.

    A U.N. human rights investigator estimates 200,000
    people have been evicted and their homes demolished so far,
    mainly in the capital Harare and in Victoria Falls. It's
    feared 2 to 3 million could eventually be targeted.

    Critics of dubbed "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.

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

    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.


    mt/jr

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