Porta Farm, a well-known slum west of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, resembled a village hit by an aerial attack as it was visited late on Thursday by United Nations special envoy Anna Tibaijuka.
At least three people have been killed here, the latest target of a blitz against crime and squalor by Zimbabwean police, said witnesses and Amnesty International.
Mounds of brick rubble, plastic sheeting, broken asbestos and iron roofing and smashed furniture were all that remained of the homes of 1 500 families at Porta Farm, whose residents were moved here from various parts of the capital ahead of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit in 1991.
”We are dirt as far as the government is concerned,” Samson Banda told Tibaijuka as she walked around the settlement pervaded by a mixture of anger, disillusionment and betrayal.
”If you can, please ask our leaders what crime we have committed to deserve such punishment,” one young woman requested the United Nations envoy.
”They brought us here saying they would build us houses. But we have known nothing but torture and harassment for all the 16 years we have been here,” she said.
Another woman asked the UN to ”please help us or just bury us alive if they can’t help us.”
Women were preparing food on open fires among the debris while some families were trying to piece together remnants of broken furniture when the UN envoy visited the shanty town, once home to some 10 000 people.
Witnesses said at least three people were killed when police moved in with bulldozers to flatten the country’s best known slum while a woman gave birth in the open after her shack was razed.
A woman identified as Jane Peter showed the UN envoy a two-month-old baby who was abandoned by her mother in the ensuing melee.
”This child has been crying since morning. We don’t know where the mother is,” she said.
”Maybe she has been taken away by the police.” Many complained that the police destroyed their furniture and were forcing them on to trucks heading to a transit camp called Caledonia, set up by the government for families displaced by the
clean-up campaign.
”Please help us because the police are just beating us up and forcing us to Caledonia,” said Wilson Phiri.
”We see on television there is no food. This morning they took away two children to force their mother to follow them to the camp.”
Tibaijuka told the residents: ”I am sorry about this … situation but we are going to work together to find a permanent solution.”
The Zimbabwean government attempted to clear Porta Farm last September using tear gas and excessive force during which at least 11 people died, Amnesty International said in a statement reporting three new deaths.
The UN estimates that 200 000 people have lost their homes since police started the two-pronged ”Operation Restore Order” and ”Operation Murambatsvina” six weeks ago, flattening backyard shops and stalls across the southern African country.
The opposition says the number of homeless is closer to 1,5-million, while tens of thousands had been arrested and charged for various offences.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last week sent Tibaijuka to Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian impact of the demolitions and the clean-up campaign.
She held talks with President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday and visited areas affected.
Mugabe said afterwards that the demolitions had been planned well in advance, and the government was setting aside $333-million to build new homes.-Sapa-AFP