/ 17 May 1999

ZAMBIA ROUNDS UP STREET KIDS

THE Zambian government has announced that it plans to round up and send home about 200000 street children. The exercise will take place in the capital Lusaka and the copperbelt region. The minister of community development and social services Dawson Lupunga says the government will train the youngsters to become responsible adults. He gives no specific timetable for the training plan. The clean-up programme, headed by Lupunga, have been widely condemned by many Zambians, including human rights campaigners, describing it as an exercise doomed to failure.