Zimbabwe Human Rights
Forced Evictions
On World Habitat Day, Amnesty International is calling for the end to forced evictions in Zimbabwe. A forced eviction is the removal of people against their will from the homes or land they occupy without legal protections and other safeguards.
More than four years after Operation Murambatsvina, the victims of mass forced evictions have not received alternative housing or compensation and many continue to live in deplorable conditions.
From May to July 2005, government security forces launched Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), a program of housing and informal business demolition that displaced approximately 700,000 people. The evictions and demolitions were carried out without adequate notice, court orders, due process, legal protection, redress or appropriate relocation measures; in violation of Zimbabwe?s obligations under international human rights law. They were carried out despite the government?s acknowledgement that the country already faced a severe housing shortage. During the operation police used excessive force: property was destroyed and people were beaten. Four years on, the authorities have failed to provide an effective remedy to the victims and, as a result, many continue to be at risk of being forcibly evicted from both their homes and their informal businesses.
Recently, up to 200 people from an informal settlement in the Harare suburb of Gunhill in Zimbabwe faced forcible eviction without adequate notice, consultation or due process. Thousands of vendors across Harare also face forcible removal from their market stalls. The majority of those affected were poor women whose principal source of livelihood is selling fruits, vegetables and other wares at market stalls like Mbare Musika and Mupedzanhamo in Harare.
Formal unemployment in Zimbabwe is above 90 per cent. The bulk of the urban population, particularly women, survive on informal trade. Further forced evictions would drive these people deeper into poverty. Since Operation Murambatsvina, the city of Harare has repeatedly targeted informal traders, mainly urban poor, seizing their wares and fining them for operating at illegal trading places. Amnesty International has accused the Harare City Council of being insensitive to the suffering of Harare?s poor who are struggling to survive under very difficult economic conditions.
Political Violence
Amnesty International documented unlawful killings, torture, harassment and intimidation of mainly Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters and human rights defenders in Zimbabwe in the period between the presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29, 2008 and the presidential run-off election between incumbent Robert Mugabe of the ZANU-PF party and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) leader Morgan Tsvangirai three months later.
In the weeks prior to the June 27 run-off vote, human rights violations substantially escalated, reaching ?crisis? proportions according to an Amnesty International press release on 15 May. The government employed youth militias to punish those living in areas perceived to be MDC strongholds. On April 25, riot police raided the headquarters of the MDC in Harare, and at least one hundred members were taken away in buses and detained, including victims of the post-election violence who sought refuge in the building.
Between April and the end of May, Amnesty International concluded that dozens of people had been killed and over 1600 sustained injuries that required hospitalization. Amnesty International concluded, "[The] election is being held against a backdrop of widespread killings, torture and assault of perceived opposition supporters." The Zimbabwe Republic Police took no action against perpetrators.
Robert Mugabe claimed victory in the election, however international condemnation, including the usually non-interventionist Southern African Development Community (SADC), forced him to sign a Global Political Agreement (GPA) on September 15, 2008 after prolonged talks brokered by SADC and then-South African President Thabo Mbeki. The document created a Government of National Unity (GNU), with power shared between President Mugabe and a newly created office of Prime Minister to be held by Tsvangirai. However, ZANU-PF insisted on retaining majority control over various ministries, including those responsible for the army, security forces, and the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
President Mugabe has utilized his control of key ministries to launch a renewed crackdown on independent journalists, human rights defenders, and MDC activists. It has refused to investigate, let alone prosecute, anyone for the disappearances of over thirty MDC supporters and human rights activists that occurred in late 2008. Twenty-three of those were later ?found? in police stations, where they had been tortured; seven MDC members are still missing. These and other recent arrests of members and leaders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, the Zimbabwe Peace Project, lawyers, trade unionists, journalists, and MDC officials have been meticulously documented by Amnesty International.
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