Dear Colleagues,
The Zimbabwean Minister of Education on Monday the 13th June 2005 made a
statement regarding the plight of the hundreds of thousands who have been
affected by Zimbabwe’s forcible destruction of homes in urban areas which has
occurred during the last few weeks and which continues today as I write. This
is how the government controlled Herald reported his comments:
“Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere said Monday that
people would be moved on to an ``appropriate place,'' adding that there is
``nobody in Zimbabwe who does not have a rural home.”
I have just received a list of the people in one of the churches that
has offered shelter to the people devastated by this atrocity which is attached
(SWRADIOAFRICA has withheld the list to protect the individuals). From
it you will see that well over half the families in that church are not
originally from Zimbabwe at all and so have no rural home to go to. Most of
these people are from Malawi and the rest are from South Africa, Zambia,
Botswana and Mozambique.
I have no doubt that this list reflects a typical breakdown of the origins of
the 1500 people affected in Killarney – as this was a “squatter camp” it had a
much higher proportion of non Zimbabweans in it than say a regular suburb of
Bulawayo would have had. However many other people living in areas where they
were lawfully resident, even Zimbabwean citizens, will not have a rural home to
go to and even if they have an area to go to they may not be welcome there at
this juncture (more mouths to feed in an already catastrophic food situation)
and will almost certainly not have any actual home or structure there to give
them shelter in mid winter. If there is any doubt about this one need look no
further than the attached extract of today’s Herald – remarkable and revealing
writing from a government controlled newspaper.
“Police also brought down close to 2 000 houses
illegally constructed by Green Valley Housing Co-operative on Belapezi Farm in
Epworth.
Another 60 houses built by Chako Ndechako Housing Co-operative in Chitungwiza
were also demolished.
Distraught Epworth residents helplessly watched their illegal structures
being razed to the ground as they pondered their next move.
Schoolchildren and other adults religiously followed the bulldozers throughout
the demolition exercise.
Judging by the huge presence of children of school-going age milling around the
demolition sites, one could easily conclude that most children in Epworth did
not attend school.
Affected families confirmed having settled in the area illegally and they
recounted sad stories of homelessness and destitution.
Mrs Tsitsi Bizare said the demolition had left her family of 10 stranded as
they did not have a home in the rural areas.
"Mr Bizare used to work at Kutsaga Research Centre and he is now retired. This
was the only home we knew and we have nowhere to go," she said.
Some families appealed for assistance to ferry their belongings to their rural
homes.
"We are not against the idea but we are saying the authorities should have
done it in a more friendly manner and relocated us to some
ready-to-live structures," said Mr Diron Minyanga.”
Clearly the Minister is not telling the truth, nor is the regime. The truth is
that hundreds of thousands have been rendered homeless by these brutal acts and
no provision has been made to ensure that these poor folk will have a roof over
their heads in the coming months, which after all are the coldest months of the
year. Most of these displaced people were already malnourished. Tens of
thousands of them have Aids. The combination of malnutrition, Aids, lack of
shelter and cold will cause thousands to die.
If the international community does not react quickly to provide tents, food,
blankets, medicines we will face a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented
proportions in the coming weeks.
It is important to recollect the following core principles set out in the
report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty
published in September 2001:
1. State sovereignty
implies responsibility, and the primary responsibility the protection of
its people lies with the State itself.
1. Where a
population is suffering serious harm, as a result of internal war,
insurgency, repression or state failure, and the State in question is unwilling
or unable to act all averted, the principle of non-intervention yields to
the international responsibility to protect.
The international
community, under the leadership of United Nations, has a clear responsibility
to protect those citizens of Zimbabwe who are now suffering serious harm as a
result of repression which the Zimbabwean State is willing to stop.
The international community’s responsibility does not end with the provision of
humanitarian assistance. What is happening in Zimbabwe is clearly a crime
against humanity as defined in Article 7 of the Rome statute of the
international criminal court, an extract of which is reproduced below.
Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court
Article 7
Crimes against humanity
1.For the purpose of the Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the
following acts when committed as part of the widespread or systematic attack
directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(f) Torture;
2.
(d) ”Deportation or forcible transfer of population” means forced displacement
of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive axe from the area in
which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international
law;
(e) “Torture” means the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering,
whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control
of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering a
rising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions.
Zimbabwe, not surprisingly, has not ratified the Treaty of Rome. It will
require a resolution of the Security Council to initiate a prosecution.
Excuses have been given that because such a resolution will be blocked
there is no point in attempting to obtain such a resolution. In my view that is
a fallacious argument for if it were to be applied universally it would mean
that dictatorial regimes will know that they can act with impunity because no
one is even prepared to attempt to have them indicted.
Unless the international community acts urgently and in a determined fashion
the forcible transfer of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans will continue and
I have no doubt that will result in tremendous suffering and indeed the loss of
life of tens of thousands of Zimbabweans and other nationals.
Now is the time to move away from rhetoric to immediate action.
Yours truly,
The Hon. David Coltart MP
Shadow Justice Minister
Zimbabwe