Zimbabwe crackdown condemned as children crushed
Thu Jun 23, 2005 2:12 PM ET
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Two Zimbabwean children were crushed to death by
rubble during the demolition of illegal houses this month in a
government crackdown that has made tens of thousands homeless,
state media reported Thursday.
The deaths were the first reported in Zimbabwe's "Operation Restore
Order," which has sparked an international outcry and prompted the
United Nations to dispatch a special envoy to assess the
humanitarian situation.
Rights groups Amnesty International and the Geneva-based Center on
Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said more than 200 African and
international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had called on
the United Nations and African Union to intervene over the clean-up
operation.
The groups told a news conference in Harare that NGOs had been
barred from independently giving aid to affected people and instead
directed to work with the government.
"The coalition of organizations urged Nigerian President (Olusegun)
Obasanjo, as chair of the Africa Union, to put the crisis in
Zimbabwe on the agenda of the upcoming AU Assembly," Amnesty and
the COHRE said in a statement. The African Union holds its annual
summit in Sirte, Libya on July 4-5.
Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper said a one-and-a-half year-old
child was crushed to death by rubble in Harare's Chitungwiza
township Sunday while a one-year-old similarly died earlier this
month in another neighborhood.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
Former colonial power Britain and the United States added their
calls for African intervention in Zimbabwe.
"If the reports are simply half true ... this is a situation of
serious international concern and no government that subscribes to
human rights and democracy should allow this kind of thing to go on
effectively under their noses," British Foreign Minister Jack Straw
told a news conference in London.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called events in the southern
African state "tragic."
