Police beat up squatters as they demolish Zim’s largest slum

HARARE – Zimbabwean anti-riot police beat up people and torched property as they flattened the country’s biggest slum of some 20 000 residents, witnesses said yesterday, as the government resumed its controversial demolition campaign.

“Police started chasing away and beating up people last night saying we were refusing to leave,” said a former squatter at the Porta Farm slum, requesting anonymity. The destruction of Porta Farm marks a resumption of the government’s controversial demolition campaign, which authorities said last week they had halted to give people time to obtain necessary permits for their homes and other buildings.Zimbabwean authorities launched in mid-May their double-pronged Operation Get Rid of Filth/Restore Order, razing shanties and kiosks which they said were built illegally, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.”The government said we were no longer allowed to stay here and promised to take us in groups to our rural homes but they failed to provide the transport,” said George Kashape, another affected resident.Zimbabwe is in the middle of a serious fuel crisis and many people displaced by the government’s clean-up drive have struggled to find transportation to their rural homes.Some people were frustrated they burned their own property after failing to get transportation.”The same government brought us here saying they were going to build us houses,” Kashape said.”They are not saying anything about allocating us alternative places under the reconstruction programme.We were just told we were no longer wanted here.”Porta Farm, west of Harare, was home to 20 000 people.Some of the residents were moved there following a campaign to clear destitute people ahead of a visit in 1980 by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.The United Nations estimates that at least 700 000 people have lost their homes while 2,4 million others have been affected by the campaign.A UN report last week called on the government to put an immediate end to the razing of homes.The Zimbabwean government, which calls the demolition campaign an urban renewal programme, condemned the UN report as biased and exaggerated.- Nampa-AFPThe destruction of Porta Farm marks a resumption of the government’s controversial demolition campaign, which authorities said last week they had halted to give people time to obtain necessary permits for their homes and other buildings.Zimbabwean authorities launched in mid-May their double-pronged Operation Get Rid of Filth/Restore Order, razing shanties and kiosks which they said were built illegally, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.”The government said we were no longer allowed to stay here and promised to take us in groups to our rural homes but they failed to provide the transport,” said George Kashape, another affected resident.Zimbabwe is in the middle of a serious fuel crisis and many people displaced by the government’s clean-up drive have struggled to find transportation to their rural homes.Some people were frustrated they burned their own property after failing to get transportation.”The same government brought us here saying they were going to build us houses,” Kashape said.”They are not saying anything about allocating us alternative places under the reconstruction programme.We were just told we were no longer wanted here.”Porta Farm, west of Harare, was home to 20 000 people.Some of the residents were moved there following a campaign to clear destitute people ahead of a visit in 1980 by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.The United Nations estimates that at least 700 000 people have lost their homes while 2,4 million others have been affected by the campaign.A UN report last week called on the government to put an immediate end to the razing of homes.The Zimbabwean government, which calls the demolition campaign an urban renewal programme, condemned the UN report as biased and exaggerated. – Nampa-AFP