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Residents of Porta Farm being forcibly removed by police on the back of a truck. The evictions were part of the Restore Order program of mass forced evictions in Zimbabwe in 2005. The operation, which was carried out in winter and against a backdrop of severe food shortages, targeted poor urban areas countrywide. © ZLHR/AI |
Government land grabs are on the rise around the world, according to the United Nations. Controversial and often violent, forced evictions of mostly poor and marginalized citizens in the name of state or private interests have met with fierce resistance from unlikely protestors.
In May, 700 elderly farmers and activists in Daechuri, South Korea, protested an eviction from their village during the government's third attempt to expel the farmers, who are mainly in their 60s and 70s. The land has been slated for the expansion of a U.S. military base since the South Korean government seized the property in December 2005.
The South Korean government's response to the protest was disproportionate. Some 13,000 riot police and 3,000 military troops stormed the crowd, injuring 130 people and arresting 350.
Rajiv Narayan, an East Asia researcher at Amnesty International, says, "Under the current terms it leaves them financially very vulnerable, with few opportunities to make a living."
In countries as far-flung as Zimbabwe, Peru and Cambodia, it is not uncommon for families to know nothing about the evictions until they are pulled from their homes. Governments often neglect to provide alternative shelter or the legal means to recover their homes. This occurs even in the United States, where nearly 14,000 Chicago public housing units have been torn down since 1999 and less than 200 new units have been built for the displaced. Such practices violate the criteria for lawful eviction set by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Forced evictions "intensify inequality, social conflict and segregation," said Miloon Kothari, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing.
Yet as nations continue to develop, more people will likely be forced from their homes. According to the Genevabased Center on Housing Rights and Evictions, 400,000 Chinese people have already been expelled from their homes by local governments in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
— Alyssa Misner
