By Tererai Karimakwenda
05 July 2005

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum reports that they submitted a petition to the United Nations envoy Anna Tibaijuka at the start of her mission to Zimbabwe. The submission detailed the so-called cleanup operation that Tibaijuka was investigating and an explanation of why the government is forcing the population to move to the rural areas.

Farai Madzimbamuto, a spokeman for the forum, said the government has destabilised urban areas because they were the opposition's strongholds. By forcing the population to move to the rural areas, they hope to be able to control them more effectively and have cut them off from transportation in case of any mass action.

Madzimbamuto said this plan will backfire though. He believes the rural areas have no infrastructure to support this urban migration and there will not be enough food there. As for a response from the UN envoy, The Forum hopes the report she makes to the United Nations will paint the truth about the government's operations and put pressure for change.