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Zimbawe Police Force Homeless From Settlement
From South Africa's Sunday Independent Harare - Armed members of the police and army swooped on one of Harare's largest informal settlements on Saturday, forcing thousands living among the ruins of their homes to leave and go to the rural areas. The forced removals began hours after the United Nations issued a report blaming President Robert Mugabe's administration for making up to 750 000 people homeless in the past two months and said the demolitions and evictions had to cease... More than 40 armed members of the security forces descended on Porta Farm, about 20km west of Harare, and camped there overnight until reinforcements arrived on Saturday. The forces moved around the ruins telling people to be ready to go. Porta Farm became a transit camp 15 years ago when Mugabe cleared out street people ahead of the Harare Commonwealth Summit and pledged to provide formal housing for them. The transit camp remained and grew and Porta Farm became an established settlement as many people transformed plastic shelters into small brick houses. Security forces were waiting for army trucks to arrive to take people away. A long line of troop carriers were en route to the camp by mid morning... A human rights activist from Bulawayo, who asked not to be named, said all churches in the city housing refugees from the demolitions had been cleared since police moved in before dawn last Wednesday. They were taken to a transit camp, a formerly white-owned farm, Helensvale, 30km away. "Now they are being taken from Helensvale and dumped in the bush. People have been told that if they don't provide the name of a rural area to which they can go, they are told they will be imprisoned. "People born outside Zimbabwe are told that they will be sent to a farm in the Mashonaland province and will never be allowed to leave it. Or they are told they will be dropped in the Zambezi River." Posted by: Pappy 2005-07-25 |
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