Home Demolitions Continue as UN Envoy Meets Mugabe

[quaoar]

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-06-29-voa34.cfm

By Tendai Maphosa
Harare
29 June 2005

A U.N. special envoy in Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian impact of the government's campaign to demolish unauthorized residential structures has met with President Robert Mugabe. The meeting between the president and envoy Anna Tibaijuka took place a day after the authorities destroyed more homes, despite claims that the operation is winding down.

About 2,000 more Zimbabwean families slept in the open Tuesday when police razed their homes at Porta Farm, about 30 kilometers west of Harare.

The lawyer for the residents of the settlement, Alec Muchadehama, witnessed the demolitions and says the police bulldozed the village even after they were shown court orders stopping them from doing so. He said his clients were told by the police that they were following orders from an authority higher than the courts.

Eyewitness reports say the police torched the rubble at the settlement and loaded the homeless on trucks, presumably to be taken to a transit camp.