Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday called for action against a ”tyrannical” urban clean-up campaign that has left thousands destitute and homeless and led to the arrest of about 22 000 people in Harare.
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, also called for foreign intervention to pressure President Robert Mugabe’s government to end the controversial drive in major towns and cities.
”Overnight, Zimbabwe has been turned into a massive internal refugee centre with between one million and 1,5-million people displaced in Harare alone,” Tsvangirai told a news conference.
”Property worth millions of dollars has gone up in flames. Families are out in the open without jobs, without shelter.
”The people across the political divide must organise themselves against this form of tyranny and outright callousness. May I appeal to the international community to support the displaced people and exert pressure on the Mugabe regime to stop this project?”
Tsvangirai said ”the only way Mugabe and [the ruling] Zanu-PF can be stopped from going ahead with this project is through a combination of local and international pressure”.
Bands of armed police have gone on the rampage in the past two weeks in major towns across Zimbabwe, demolishing and torching backyard shacks and makeshift shop stalls in a campaign that has attracted widespread condemnation.
One of the country’s oldest townships of Mbare in Harare resembled a town struck by a natural disaster on Monday, with timber, cardboard, roofing sheets and broken furniture strewn all over.
The opposition leader said his party is not opposed to a genuine exercise to spruce up cities and towns and promote orderly business.
”What we are against is the manner of this so-called clean-up exercise where people are subjected to intimidation and harassment by the police,” he said.
Tsvangirai on Monday visited some of townships and slums where police flattened shacks built without approval.
”I spent five hours visiting various sites previously occupied by poor families … The picture was shocking. I saw children sitting in the open in this cold winter and I heard old women tell horrendous tales of betrayal at the hands of the Mugabe regime.”
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean police said they have arrested 22 000 in Harare for various offences since the launch of the clean-up campaign.
”We have arrested 22 000 people in Harare alone for various offences, including illegal vending, selling foreign currency on the black market and hoarding scarce commodities,” Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, the police spokesperson, said.
”We are still proceeding with the operation. We are dealing with illegal settlements and other settlements that were set up by unlicensed vendors. Some of the vendors were acting as conduits for proceeds of crime,” he said. — Sapa-AFP