The Zimbabwe government says United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan does not have a ”factual position” on the country and is being misled by people in his office, a government spokesperson told the state-controlled Herald newspaper on Thursday.
President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba told the newspaper that Annan should wait until a top UN humanitarian official visits the country before issuing statements on the plight of Zimbabweans made homeless by an urban clean-up campaign earlier this year.
”There was a commitment by Zimbabwe to play host to the UN humanitarian coordinator this month, and the UN secretary general cannot have a factual position on the situation in Zimbabwe until that coordinator comes and makes his assessment and reports back to him,” Charamba said.
On Monday, a spokesperson for Annan issued a statement saying that the secretary general was ”deeply concerned” by the plight of tens of thousand of Zimbabweans who remain homeless after police in May mounted a blitz that saw the demolition of houses, shacks and flea markets throughout the country.
The blitz, which the authorities described as an urban renewal campaign, received widespread international criticism.
”There are people working in the secretary general’s office who mislead him,” Charamba said.
Charamba said the UN had been influenced by recent reports from the BBC on Zimbabwe.
”What has prompted the statement, which purported to be coming from Mr Annan, is a documentary aired by BBC’s [South Africa-based correspondent] Hilary Andersson,” he said.
”Comrade Charamba said Mr Annan cannot rely on the BBC as a bona fide media organisation to speak on Zimbabwe because Zimbabwe and Britain has a diplomatic war emanating from the land question,” the Herald added.
In his statement, Annan also expressed dismay over the government’s refusal of UN offers of temporary shelter to the displaced.
The statement from Annan’s office insisted that a ”large number of vulnerable groups, including the recent evictees as well as other vulnerable populations, remain in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, including shelter”.
But Charamba told the Herald the government does not want temporary shelters.
”If the UN and donors are keen to assist in augmenting government efforts, they should assist in constructing permanent structures and not temporary structures,” he said.
The government has promised to build tens of thousands of new houses over the next few years. But the ambitious programme is being hampered by reported shortages of cash and building materials. Independent economists say Zimbabwe’s tightly stretched economy cannot afford such a programme.
Jan Egeland, the UN’s under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, is due in Zimbabwe at the end of November. — Sapa-DPA