A coalition of more than 200 African and international civic groups has called on the United Nations and African Union to press for an end to evictions and demolitions that have left people across Zimbabwe homeless.
"Over the past four weeks the government of Zimbabwe has orchestrated the widespread forced eviction of tens of thousands of informal traders and families living in informal settlements," the groups said in a joint statement issued Thursday at press conferences in five African cities, including Johannesburg, and at the United Nations.
"During these forced evictions homes have been burnt and property destroyed. Many individuals have been arbitrarily arrested, detained, fined, abducted and/or beaten. Such actions continue unabated, and with impunity."
The coalition, coordinated by Amnesty International and the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), has urged Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to place events in Zimbabwe on the agenda of the upcoming African Union (AU) summit. Obasanjo currently chairs the AU, which is scheduled to meet in Libya next month.
"African solidarity should be with the people of Africa -- not their repressive leaders," said the coalition.
It also called on the UN to ensure Zimbabwe's government provided relief aid and compensation to those whose homes had been destroyed. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already appointed Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, executive director of the organisation's Human Settlements Programme, as a special envoy to report on evictions in Zimbabwe.
Rights groups claim that upwards of 300,000 mostly poor Zimbabweans have been targeted by the eviction campaign, officially aimed at clearing away unauthorized buildings and ending black market trade in scarce goods.
The state-run 'Herald' newspaper has quoted President Robert Mugabe as saying the crackdown is meant to "restore sanity" to urban centres. It also noted that overcrowding in these areas posed health risks which needed to be addressed.
Zimbabwe's main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), believes the campaign -- known as Operation Murambatsvina (a Shona word meaning "drive out rubbish") -- is directed against its supporters, largely found in poor, urban areas.
Arnold Tsunga of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights agrees.
"Mugabe wants to destroy the MDC's power base. He wants these people to go to the rural areas so that he can control the channels of food. When they are dependent on food aid it's easy to control them," he said Thursday.
Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a severe food crisis, blamed on drought and farm occupations officially intended to end racial imbalances in land ownership. About a third of the country's 12 million people are said to be in need of emergency aid. "Now the number is going to be more," observes Tsunga.
Others point out that the campaign has not only affected MDC supporters. For Zimbabwean activist Daniel Molokela, who works for the Johannesburg-based Peace and Democracy Project, it is simply an exercise in the "politics of diversions".
"They are now a trait of the regime. When there is an internal focus on an issue - say on the flawed March parliamentary elections - Mugabe starts another thing," he told IPS. "You can see that people have now lost focus on the election. People are now concentrating on the demolitions."
The evictions come in the midst of the Southern Hemisphere winter, leaving many exposed to the elements.
"No care has been shown for these people, many of whom are vulnerable. Thousands of children, the elderly and the ill face the prospect of disease and in some cases death from hunger, exposure and drinking unsafe water," the coalition said in its statement.
Matters are doubtless aggravated by the fact that Zimbabwe has an HIV prevalence rate of almost 25 percent (according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS). With anti-retroviral drugs reaching only a fraction of those who need them, there may be many HIV-positive Zimbabweans who find their immune systems further compromised by being forced to live in the open.
To drive its message home, the coalition showed a short video clip, shot clandestinely in Zimbabwe and smuggled out of the country.
The film shows a distraught woman, weeping uncontrollably. "We have lost everything. My family sleeps in the open. There's no one to turn to for help or advice. No one in the government is willing to listen to us," she says.
Outspoken Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube from the southern city of Bulawayo also appears in the clip to denounce government's actions.
"The government wants these people to go to the rural areas where they can starve them. I'm so angry with this government that I'm ready to stand in front of the gun and be shot," he notes.
The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has been accused of manipulating food supplies in rural areas to punish opposition supporters.
Zimbabwean officials have reportedly promised to provide new homes for those left destitute by its campaign.
However, COHRE isn't waiting to see whether Harare fulfils this pledge. Instead, it intends bringing the Mugabe administration before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands.
"We feel that the government has a huge case to answer. This is a calamity," the NGO's Jean du Plessis told IPS.
"It may take a long time, but we'll be pushing for it," he added. "The perpetrators will be prosecuted - if not today, then in the future."
The ICC, based in The Hague, was established in 1998 to prosecute persons accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The move by COHRE comes as Zimbabwe's own courts appear unable to prevent the destruction of housing.
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Tsunga claims that his organisation has filed seven cases in a bid to end the evictions, but that these were thrown out by the high court. Concerning a bid to prevent removals in the Harare suburb of Hatcliffe, the court apparently claimed evictions could proceed because of unauthorized construction on properties.
"Zimbabwe's judiciary has become impotent to protect the weak. In fact, our judiciary has become a liability to the society it is supposed to serve," notes Tsunga.
Molokela believes a more concerted mobilization of Zimbabweans living abroad is key to improving the situation in his country.
"In South Africa alone we have two million plus Zimbabweans. ZANU-PF has won the international propaganda war because the MDC has failed to organise the Zimbabwe diaspora," he says. "As civil society, we are now going to assume that role and highlight the crisis in Zimbabwe."
Events of the past four weeks mark the latest in a series of developments that have put Zimbabwe at the centre of international attention in recent years.
Since the start of 2000 the Southern African country has held three elections marred by political violence, most of it directed against the opposition. Legislation has been passed that assists government in stifling dissent, and efforts have also been made to muzzle the independent press.
