By Violet Gonda

1st July 2005

The UN's special envoy, Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, headed for Manicaland Province Friday for an open meeting with the public and local authorities. But the government is desperate to "sweep its dirt under the carpet," and it was reported that scores of people who were evicted from their homes in Sakubva Township in Mutare and had been moved to a holding camp called Sports Oval, were evicted Friday morning.

The Mayor of Mutare Mischeck Kagurabadza, who was preparing for Mrs Tibaijuka's visit, confirmed that the people were evicted from the holding camp. He said there is great concern for the families' plight as their whereabouts are now not known.

Over a thousand families were dumped at this holding camp since the evictions started on May 28th. Mutare councillors said that people were living under appalling conditions. The Red Cross had originally supplied tents for the people but the police force took over the whole operation and separated the families and distributed the tents into male and female groups.
Many people were also sleeping out in the cold as the tents were not enough for everyone. Pishai Muchauraya, MDC Information Officer for Manicaland province, said the latest evictions are a deliberate move by the authorities, as they knew that the situation at the holding camp would have serious consequences if the UN envoy had seen how people were living.

The envoy also passed through Rusape township and met with local authorities and members of the public before going to the eastern border town. Observers say the visits by Mrs Tibaijuka are so far encouraging as she is making herself available to all stakeholders, especially the victims. Many feel that although the government is trying to do damage control the envoy is not blinkered to what is going on. What remains to be seen is whether she records all these atrocities in her report and what action the United Nations will take. Meanwhile, it's reported that in the first indication of a reaction from African leaders to Mugabe's campaign, the African Commission, the administrative arm of the African Union, said that it was sending Tom Nyanduga, its rapporteur on refugees, to Zimbabwe to investigate.