Children crushed to death as a result of Operation Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe

Operation Murambatsvina (drive out rubbish) started by President Robert Mugabe has claimed the lives of two children in the capital of Harare. The operation is meant to restore sanity in the urban areas which have supposedly been overrun by criminals. The project has also left 200,000 people homeless. Variuos buildings have been demolished by the government on the grounds of being illegal and being a health risk to its occupants. Many UN deligates have been criticizing the Zimbabwe government for these actions, but Mugabe has rejected any criticism by saying its the only way to restore order from an ever growing black market, which has devasted the economy.



Well thats a nice way to treat your citizens. Destroy their homes and than leave them on the street. These people have no where to live now.

I am all for getting rid of the black market which has hindered the economy in Zimbabwe, but there has got to be a better plan laid out. How about setting up some temporary shelter for the residents BEFORE hand and then demolishing the building?

And there is no excuse for killing these two children. How could they not have checked to see if everyone was out of the building before destroying it?


[edit on 23-6-2005 by LuDaCrIs]

[edit on 24-7-2005 by asala]

www.iol.co.za...

By Basildon Peta, Sheena Adams and Peter Fabricius

The South African cabinet was on Tuesday expected to consider extending a controversial loan to Zimbabwe in exchange for political and economic reforms.

This follows "intensive interactions" by the government with Zimbabwe to help it pull out of its economic nosedive.

Zimbabwean Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono met South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni and Treasury officials on Friday.

The government is refusing to confirm or deny that the expected loan is conditional on political and economic reforms by President Robert Mugabe's government, or other details.

Zimbabwean sources said the loan was needed to enable them to pay for fuel, electricity and food, which have almost run out.

"If this fails, we are facing a major catastrophe," said a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe official.

He said import cover had almost entirely run out after the central bank paid more than $100-million (about R665-million) for the import of six Chinese fighter jets and a quarter of that for grain imports.

Sources have said one of the conditions South Africa has imposed for giving the loan is that Zimbabwe stop Operation Murambatsvina, its campaign of destroying informal shacks and hawkers' kiosks in the cities, which has left thousands of Zimbabweans homeless and destitute.

The Zimbabwean government announced a temporary halt to the campaign on Saturday, without explaining why.

Government spokesperson Joel Net#enzhe said: "There has been intensive interaction with the Zimbabwean government over the last few days.

"These interactions involve discussions about the kind of assistance we can give them to implement a programme of economic recovery and matters related to the normalisation of the political situation in Zimbabwe," he said.

Any decisions by the "fiscal and monetary authorities" would have to be ratified by the cabinet, "and with a loan, the cabinet would have to take the decision to parliament", Net#enzhe added.

Zimbabwe's main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, said it saw no benefits accruing to Zimbabwe from a rescue package that did not address the fundamental issues that had led to the country's economic collapse.