Amnesty International reveals shocking impact of Zimbabwe's demolition exercise

By Violet Gonda
31 May 2006

Shocking satellite images released on Wednesday by Amnesty International provide the clearest possible evidence to date of the devastating impact of the Zimbabwean government's policy of house demolitions.
The human rights group used images of Porta Farm before and after the introduction of Robert Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina (Drive out filth) to show the wholesale destruction of a large community in Zimbabwe. Porta Farm was a large informal settlement just outside the capital Harare and home to nearly 10 000 people. More than 850 structures were destroyed.

The first images of the area, shot in June 2002, show a vibrant community with hundreds of homes and then an after picture, shot in April 2006, shows the whole community entirely obliterated.
In early 2005 Robert Mugabe embarked on a controversial demolition exercise that has been described by the United Nations as a disastrous venture. The UN says this so-called clean up operation affected the lives of 2.1 million people- some 18% of the population. 700 000 people were left homeless. The operation also resulted in several deaths. Several human rights organisations in Zimbabwe said 4 of those were from Porta Farm. Speaking in an radio interview at that time, last year, Mike Davies the Chairperson of the Combined Harare Residents and Ratepayers Association said 2 women, one of them pregnant, died after falling from police trucks while 2 children – aged two and four– were run over and killed.

The scale of destruction of Operation Murambatsvina was unprecedented in Zimbabwe. The government forcibly and brutally displaced many of its own citizens in peacetime. The victims were mainly the poor and vulnerable in Zimbabwe's cities and towns, and many of the households had already been devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Despite an outcry from the international community especially from the UN, the Mugabe regime continued with the illegal evictions and denied breaking any international laws. Residents at Porta Farm were given less than 24 hours to vacate their homes before riot police were sent in to bulldoze the settlement to the ground.

Speaking on Newsreel, Amnesty campaigner in the Africa Programme Simeon Mawanza said; “Three court orders that were given by Zimbabwean courts barring the government of Zimbabwe from embarking on forced evictions without identifying accommodation for these people were ignored”. This was despite the fact that the court orders were physically served on the police.

Mawanza called on African leaders to put pressure and seriously engage the Zimbabwean government. “I think our major worry as Amnesty International is the lack of concern from African leaders to deal with the Zimbabwe issue,” saying this was despite the fact that the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights had raised concerns on the human rights situation on Zimbabwe. The human rights campaigner added, “African leaders through the African Union have failed to provide the kind of leadership to ensure that the people of Zimbabwe enjoy the human rights that they are entitled to.”

Kolawole Olaniyan, the Africa programme director at Amnesty International said in a statement, "The images and footage are a graphic indictment of the Zimbabwean government's policies. They show the horrifying transition of an area from a vibrant community to rubble and shrubs - in the space of just ten months."

The Porta Farm evictions took place while the UN Special Envoy, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, was in Zimbabwe. The Special Envoy’s team visited Porta Farm and witnessed demolitions and forced removals of people in police and government trucks. The subsequent report of the UN Special Envoy describes how the team was "shocked by the brutality" of what they witnessed.

Amnesty International says it will continue to appeal to human rights groups, the international community and to people’s consciences, so that they can bring the human suffering to an end in Zimbabwe.