viewlondon.co.uk
29 May 2008 00:01 GMT
Robert Mugabe is waging a campaign of
intimidation and violence against
Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), a senior party figure has
claimed.
David Coltart, re-elected
as a senator in the March 29th parliamentary
elections, said Mr Mugabe's
supporters had committed "a fresh crime against
humanity" in the last five
weeks.
Increased abductions, displacements and the "gratuitous use of
violence" all
form part of the targeted campaign being conducted by Mr
Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party since the first-round election.
That took
place two months ago today and, after a lengthy delay, saw the MDC
take
control of the country's parliament. The MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai failed
to
win an absolute majority in the presidential contest, prompting the
current
run-off campaign and Mr Mugabe's reign of terror.
Speaking at an event
hosted by thinktank Policy Exchange in London, Mr
Coltart compared the
current crisis to the gukuruhundi, the 1983
pacification campaign which
resulted in the deaths of 20,000 civilians.
The month after the election
saw the number of human rights violations in
Zimbabwe increase tenfold, he
said, with second- and third-tier leadership
levels of the MDC and the
north-east of the country singled out for special
attention.
"A new
operation has unfolded. It is increasingly clear that Zanu-PF has
organised
a brutal campaign to root out people who voted for, or were in
junior
leadership positions in, the MDC under Morgan Tsvangirai," Mr Coltart
said.
By May 16th Harare hospital had treated 1,600 victims of the
violence alone
while 22 deaths among MDC supporters had been confirmed, he
claimed. One man
was found with his eyes gouged out and his tongue cut
out.
"We face a very serious situation. These are the actions of a
government
which has thrown caution to the wind. The government will do
anything to win
the runoff," Mr Coltart continued.
"[It is] a vicious
plan of action designed to intimidate the electorate and
destroy or at least
disrupt party centres."
Despite these problems the senior opposition
figure, who co-founded the MDC
but supported a separate faction to Mr
Tsvangirai's in the first-round poll,
remains upbeat ahead of the
second-round vote on June 27th.
He says the reunited MDC will command a
substantial lead at the polls, with
the eight per cent of voters backing
third-placed candidate Simba Makoni
expected to come across "en masse" for
Tsvangirai.
The MDC also hopes to reverse low voter turnout in Harare,
Bulawayo and
other big urban centres, where disillusionment in the first
round had seen
less than a third of eligible voters turning out.
"We
can easily make up the numbers. People now know why they need to end
this
nonsense," Mr Coltart continued.
"This is primarily a psychological
battle. The rank and file [in Zimbabwe's
police and military] simply cannot
come out, but they understand… the only
chance for the future is a
change."
Despite this optimism Mr Coltart admitted problems with
voterigging are "far
worse than ever" in the approach to the
run-off.
A defective voter roll, the displacement of many MDC supporters
to places
where they cannot vote and a lack of free media are among the
factors which
make the elections "failed" in terms of being free and
fair.
The larger diaspora problem, police routinely banning meetings and
state
resources only being made available to one party "excessively" add to
the
problems, Mr Coltart explained.
"The country is paralysed. It is
very hard to convey how serious the human
rights violations are and the
impact this has had on the mood – there is a
climate of fear in the
country."
The run-off takes place on June 27th.
Kenya Today
By KITSEPILE NYATHI, NATION Correspondent
Last updated: Wed, May
28, 2008 00:10 AM (EAT)
HARARE, Wednesday
A newly elected
Zimbabwean legislator, who allegedly visited army barracks
to try and
convince the commanders to ditch President Robert Mugabe, after
he lost the
first round of the presidential election on March 29, has been
arrested in a
fresh clampdown on dissent.
Mr Tichaona Augustos Mudzingwa, a retired
colonel who won a seat in the
capital, Harare, on an opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
ticket, appeared in court on Monday charged with
causing disaffection among
the defence forces and communicating
falsehoods.
According to court records, on March 31, the legislator
allegedly went to
the army headquarters in the company of another opposition
MP, Pearson
Mungofa, and asked to meet army commander Lieut-Gen Phillip
Sibanda.
The two are said to have told two senior officers on duty that
opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won the presidential election by 62
per cent.
Mr Mudzingwa and Mr Mungofa are said to have added that the
opposition
leader was the president-in-waiting, and that their visit was
part of the
party’s grand transition strategy.
The prosecution said
the utterances by the two risked causing disaffection
among military
officers and were prejudicial to the State.
The case will provide a
glimpse into the behind-the-scenes discussions for a
smooth transition
during the country’s month-long wait for the presidential
poll
results.
There was speculation that Mr Mugabe had contemplated quitting
soon after it
emerged that he had lost the election to Tsvangirai, but army
generals
pressured him to stay on.
The aging leader now faces a
do-or-die presidential election run-off on June
27 after Tsvangirai failed
to win 50 per cent of the vote.
Army generals have threatened to stage a
coup if President Mugabe loses to
Mr Tsvangirai, whom they consider a puppet
of the West.
In police custody
Meanwhile, two MDC legislators were
released yesterday after spending three
days in police custody for allegedly
holding a community meeting without
permission from the
police.
Norman Mpofu and Lutho Tapela were arrested after holding a
consultative
meeting with the community in the western border town of
Plumtree, in what
has been described as a renewed crackdown on opposition
forces ahead of the
run-off.
Two civic leaders in the town were also
arrested after helping organise the
meeting, which was held last
Saturday.
Gordon Moyo, the chairman of Bulawayo Agenda, a local civic
group that
organised the meeting, said the arrests were surprising because
his
organisation had never sought police clearance for its
activities.
The Scotsman
Published Date: 29 May
2008
By JANE FIELDS
ZIMBABWE CORRESPONDENT
THE woman waiting in the
doctor's surgery cradles an arm in plaster. She
looks at me, at the child on
my knee.
When she stands up, I see the bandages round her thighs through her
thin
blue skirt. The blood has seeped brown stripes on to the fabric. In the
waiting room, a man winces in pain as he sits down.
"I am the MDC
councillor for Ward 15," he says.
"I have brought in two more people
who were beaten."
"What's happened to the people?" my child asks. When I
brought him for a
check-up for a bad cold, I had not realised I'd be
exposing him to
Zimbabwe's post-election brutality.
The doctor is one
of several treating mainly opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
supporters who've been beaten following president
Robert Mugabe's defeat in
the first round of presidential elections on 29
March. I am a reporter, but
I am also a mother who must shield her child.
How do you maintain family
life when a country is descending into horror?
I live in a country where
people disappear in the night. Sometimes their
horribly-mutilated bodies are
found a few days later. Their names flash
across my computer screen:
Shepherd Jani, Sam Kahari, Tonderai Ndira. They
were activists, party
candidates, youth leaders. Analysts now call
Zimbabwe's rugged countryside
the "killing fields".
Phone interviews must be conducted from behind the
bathroom door. Harrowing
press releases must be read without comment. I take
a break to make a
Superman cape out of a nightdress. But some things come
close to home.
Our domestic worker came back from Nyanga on Tuesday. Her
70-something
father was beaten because his children work for whites. "You
are an MDC
supporter," the attackers said. They whacked him across the face,
the back,
the buttocks. "They are killing people," she says, her face
creased with
pain.
In the doctor's surgery, I hug my boy's head
against my chest so he cannot
see my face and I take the woman's hand. "She
fell over," I say later. Where
work's concerned, I must tell the truth. I
lie to my child as I want him to
have a few more years before trying to
understand why people beat and kill
to stay in power.
• Jane Fields
writes for The Scotsman from Zimbabwe. For her personal
safety, we are
unable to use her image.
Zim Online
by Sebastian Nyamhangambiri Thursday 29 May
2008
MUREHWA – President Robert Mugabe was behaving like a
man possessed by an
evil spirit, authorising violence and murder in his
desperate bid to hang
onto power, his main challenger said on
Wednesday.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai – who faces Mugabe in a
run-off
presidential election next month – said Mugabe’s political career
was
finished, adding that the veteran leader’s violent campaign to
intimidate
Zimbabweans to grant him another five-year term in office will
fail.
"Mugabe has lost direction and behaves like he is possessed,
assaulting and
killing people for simply voting for the MDC (opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party," said Tsvangirai, who was
speaking at the
burial in Murehwa of an MDC supporter who was murdered by
suspected
activists of Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party.
Shepherd Jani,
who contested the Murehwa senate seat on behalf of the MDC
but lost, was
last week abducted from his shop at Murehwa rural business
centre. His
whereabouts remained unknown until his bullet-riddled body was
found dumped
in Goromonzi district about 100km away.
Tsvangirai, who earlier on
Tuesday launched a fund to help victims of
political violence, says at least
50 supporters of his MDC party have been
killed by suspected state agents
and ZANU PF militia since the opposition
party’s victory in the March 29
presidential and parliamentary elections.
The opposition party claims the
killings are meant intimidate its supporters
to vote for Mugabe in the June
27 run-off presidential election or
alternatively force them to stay away
from the poll out of fear and thereby
hand Mugabe an easy
victory.
The run-off election is being held after electoral authorities
said
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in March but failed to garner more than 50
percent of the vote required to takeover power.
Tsvangirai said the
violence and killings would not stop imminent political
change in the
country, adding that Zimbabweans could no longer stand the
hunger and
economic turmoil that have characterised Mugabe’s rule in recent
years.
"He (Mugabe) is gone – people have rejected him and he cannot
stop that.
People are supporting the MDC because they can no longer stand
poverty and
joblessness, among other plethora of problems caused by ZANU
PF,” said
Tsvangirai who was speaking in the vernacular Shona
language.
The run-off election is being held amid worsening food
shortages and an
economic recession shown in the world’s highest inflation
rate of more than
165 000 percent.
Such a scenario would mean certain
and emphatic electoral defeat for any
sitting government but analysts say a
blistering campaign of political
violence against MDC structures and
supporters might just tilt the scales in
favour of Mugabe. – ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Thursday 29 May
2008
HARARE - More than 11 000 children have been affected by
political violence
since Zimbabwe's disputed March 29 elections, the United
Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
Political
violence broke out in many parts of Zimbabwe almost immediately it
became
clear that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party had defeated President Robert Mugabe and his
ruling ZANU PF party in the March polls.
The MDC accuses Mugabe of
unleashing ZANU PF militias and the army to beat
and torture Zimbabweans
into backing him in a second round presidential
election on June 27 - a
charge the government denies. The opposition party
says at least 50 of its
supporters have been killed in the violence and
thousands more
displaced.
UNICEF country representative Festo Kavishe, in a written
response to
questions from ZimOnline, yesterday said the affected children,
some of whom
no longer attended school after being displaced together with
their
families, were in urgent need of help.
Kavishe said: "We have
received reliable information that over 11 000
children have been affected
by the violence and are in need of assistance.
"The children have been
affected in various ways. Some have been unable to
attend school, others
have been displaced together with their families, a
few have been beaten
together with their mothers and many have been affected
by the psychological
trauma of seeing their parents, guardians or their
teachers being beaten and
humiliated in front of them."
The UNICEF official said in the absence of
appropriate and adequate
psychological support the impact of the violence on
children could have
long-term negative effects well into
adulthood.
The world children's agency was working with local partners to
identify
affected children and provide them with basic
requirements.
Kavishe said before the outbreak of political violence,
UNICEF was providing
support through NGOs to more than 180 000 orphans and
other vulnerable
children. However, he added that this support was in
jeopardy because
political violence made it impossible to reach out to all
the needy
children.
In addition to political violence, Zimbabwean
children must also suffer the
harsh effects of a severe food crisis gripping
the country for the past
eight years and an economic recession marked by the
world's highest
inflation rate that is close to a million percent according
to some
estimates. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Thursday 29 May
2008
HARARE – The Anglican Church has
excommunicated a second bishop in Zimbabwe,
Elson Jakazi of Manicaland
diocese, after he threatened to withdraw the
diocese from the church’s
central African synod claiming that homosexuality
was rampant in the
congregation.
The regional synod, which is officially known as the Church
of the Province
of Central (CPCA), is the church’s supreme authority in the
region and a
fortnight excommunicated former Bishop of Harare, Nolbert
Kunonga, who had
also tried to withdraw his diocese.
The dean of the
CPCA, Albert Chama, in a letter to the Diocese of Manicaland
dated May 16
and delivered on Monday said Jakazi was no longer the bishop of
the
diocese.
“His licence as clergyman in the Anglican Communion is
automatically revoked
and he is no longer authorised or permitted to have
any authority or control
whatsoever over the diocese, nor to represent it in
anyway, nor to use the
funds and assets of the diocese,” read Chama’s
letter. Chama said Jakazi had
committed schism.
The CPCA dean has
since appointed retired Bishop Peter Hatendi as the vicar
general and bishop
of Manicaland for a year.
Jakazi yesterday declined to comment on his
excommunication from the church.
Kunonga and Jakazi last year wrote to
the CPCA threatening to withdraw the
dioceses of Manicaland and Harare
claiming that the church had failed to
address the issue of homosexuality in
the church.
Kunonga went on to form his own Anglican Province of
Zimbabwe.
Kunonga – a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe who
tried to use
the pulpit to defend the Zimbabwean leader’s controversial
policies – was
excommunicated together with several priests and other church
leaders who
backed his revolt against the mother church.
Chama said
the church had imposed on Kunonga "and all those who support him
the
sentence of Greater Excommunication, thereby separating them from the
church
of the Province of Central Africa and the Anglican Communion.”
The CPCA
appointed retired Bishop Sebastian Bakare as caretaker head of the
Harare
diocese, a move Kunonga has fiercely tried to resist. – ZimOnline.
http://zimbabwemetro.com/
By Philip Mangena ⋅ zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ May 28,
2008
Marvellous Khumalo,MDC St.Marys,.
The government crackdown on MDC
officials is escalating,as of Thursday 5 MDC
House of Assembly and Senate
elects have been arrested.
MDC Senator for Bulilima-Mangwe,Sen.Tapela
Lutho,MDC-Bulilima-Mangwe., and
Norman Mpofu,MDC-Bulilima East., were
arrested at the border town of
Plumtree on Tuesday.
Early this month
police also arrested Heya Shoko.,Bikita West. Early last
week Ian Hamilton
Kay,MDC-Marondera Central., and Amos
Chibaya,MDC-Mkoba.,were
arrested
State media reports that MDC Secretary for defence Tichaona
Mudzingwa
yesterday appeared in court for allegedly in what state media say
communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the State. Mudzingwa, is a retired
colonel.
No members from ZANU PF have been arrested despite being
implicated in the
violence that has claimed to date 54 MDC
activists.
Gulf Times, Qatar
Published:
Thursday, 29 May, 2008,
01:54 AM Doha Time
By Jabu Shoko
HARARE: As
the country braces for what many fear will be a bloody run-off
election next
month, Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party is stepping up its
efforts to make
sure President Robert Mugabe captures a majority of the
vote.
In addition
to a widespread campaign of intimidation spearheaded by militias
in areas
where voters backed opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, the
authorities
are tightening up control over the state media.
Earlier this month, the
government fired Henry Muradzikwa, chief executive
at the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation, apparently for failing to provide
adequately
favourable coverage of Mugbae in advance of the first round of
voting.
The television network was also faulted for broadcasting campaign
commercials for the opposition that were widely considered more effective
than those of the ruling party.
Muradzikwa was replaced by Happison
Muchechetere, a senior broadcast
journalist and staunch ZANU-PF
loyalist.
Within days of taking over, Muchechetere replaced popular
prime-time soap
operas with documentaries extolling Mugabe’s role in the
1970s war of
liberation.
In addition, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa,
a hard-line Mugabe
supporter, has reportedly read the riot act to editors of
all government-run
newspapers, telling them in no uncertain terms not to
publish stories which
put Tsvangirai and the MDC in a good light.
In
addition to its public relations efforts, ZANU-PF has also established
special committees to improve the availability of food and public transport,
two issues seen as key to Mugabe’s poor showing in the March
vote.
Meanwhile, the country’s central bank reportedly has been ordered to
print
money at an unprecedented rate in order to underwrite the regime’s
newfound
largesse and finance procurements of fuel, maize and farm
machinery, as well
as wages for security services and
paramilitaries.
That move is likely to increase the hyperinflation that has
long gripped the
country, where $1 was worth 255mn Zimbabwe dollars earlier
this month.
All these actions are intended to reverse what Mugabe himself
called the
“dismal results” of the initial vote.
Eldred Masunungure, a
professor of political science at the University of
Zimbabwe, said the range
of strategies deployed by ZANU-PF shows how
determined it is to get Mugabe
re-elected.
Masunungure said that for the outcome of the vote, now set for
June 27, to
be viewed as legitimate, it is essential for the Southern
African
Development Community, the African Union, and other international
observers
to be allowed to supervise and monitor the polls. – The Institute
for War &
Peace Reporting/MCT
http://zimbabwemetro.com/
By Roy Chinamano ⋅ zimbabwemetro.com ⋅ May 28,
2008
MDC Shadow Senator for Murehwa and Mashonaland East Provincial
Treasurer
Shepherd Jani was laid to rest at his Murehwa rural
home.
Addressing mourners at the funeral majority party leader and
presidential
candidate Morgan Tsvangirai blamed the ruling ZANU-PF party of
President
Robert Mugabe for what observers say is a state sponsored campaign
of
terror.
Jani was abducted and murdered in the ongoing wave of post
election violence
in the country, Tsvangirai called Wednesday for the
immediate deployment of
United Nations and regional observers.
United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour condemned
the
political violence in Zimbabwe and called for an investigation. She said
Wednesday that although it is difficult to obtain precise information on the
range of violence or the number of politically motivated killings, there
“appears to be an increasing pattern of people being targeted for
politically motivated assassination.”
Contact the writer of this
story, Roy at : harare@zimbabwemetro.com
VOA
By Thomas Chiripasi, Jonga Kandemiiri & Patience
Rusere
Murehwa, Zimbabwe & Washington
28 May
2008
Zimbabwean opposition leader and presidential
candidate Morgan Tsvangirai,
burying an official of his Movement for
Democratic Change who was abducted
and murdered in the ongoing wave of
election-related violence in the
country, called Wednesday for the immediate
deployment of United Nations and
regional observers.
Addressing
mourners at the funeral of MDC Mashonaland East Provincial
Treasurer
Shepherd Jani, abducted and killed recently by alleged ZANU-PF
youth
militants, blamed the ruling ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe,
for
what many observers charge is a state-backed campaign of political
terror.
Correspondent Thomas Chiripasi of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
covered the
funeral in Murehwa and told reporter Carole Gombakomba that
mourners were
clearly in shock and unable to conceal their apprehension of
deadly
violence.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Louise Arbour condemned
the political violence in Zimbabwe and called for an
investigation. She said
Wednesday that although it is difficult to obtain
precise information on the
range of violence or the number of politically
motivated killings, there
"appears to be an increasing pattern of people
being targeted for
politically motivated assassination.".
Those
observing the violence that has become widespread since the country's
March
29 elections said the pattern of abuses has changed from
indiscriminate
beatings and sometimes killings of rural residents suspected
of having voted
for the opposition, to abductions followed by the murders of
targeted
opposition party organizers.
Jani and Tonderai Ndira were among the most
recent victims. The two were
taken from their homes, murdered, and dumped in
Goromonzi, Mashonaland east.
Another opposition member, Dereck Sora, was
abducted Tuesday from his home
in Chihuri village, Shamva North
constituency, Mashonaland Central, by
suspected state security agents.
Sources said his whereabouts and condition
were unknown.
Zimbabwe
Peace Project Chairman Alois Chaumba told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri
that he
believes the shift in violence has occurred because ZANU-PF is
anxious to
avoid scrutiny by international observers, but wants to pursue a
campaign of
terror.
Meanwhile, sources said ZANU-PF militia members on Wednesday
attacked Kodzwa
village in the Mazowe Central constituency of Mashonaland
Central province,
leading the residents to fight back in self-defense. They
said police were
called in and an army helicopter hovered as more than 20
opposition members
were arrested.
Mazowe Central member of parliament
Shepherd Mushonga told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the ZANU-PF government sought
to instill fear in the people of
Chiweshe by sending in an army helicopter.
Amnesty International in an
annual report issued Wednesday classified
Zimbabwe with Iraq and Myanmar or
Burma as a “human rights flashpoint”
needing immediate
action.
Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan said Zimbabwe
and other
such countries must close the gap between promises on rights and
performance.
The human rights watchdog said in its review of 2007
that human rights in
Zimbabwe continue to be violated, charging that state
agents including the
police restrict freedom of association, torture, and
abduct opposition
members and civic activists.
Amnesty International
Zimbabwe specialist Simeon Mawanza told reporter
Patience Rusere that
conditions in Zimbabwe have continued to deteriorate in
2008.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com
May 29, 2008
By Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO – While recently elected local government councillors
wait
anxiously to assume office, Local Government, Public Works and Urban
Development Minister, Ignatius Chombo, has added to their growing
frustration by appointing commissions to run the affairs of major cities and
towns.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was quick to denounce
Chombo’s
latest move as illegal and unlawful.
During the March 29
elections, the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai, won in
almost all the wards in
major cities and towns. But Chombo now says the
newly elected councillors
can only be sworn-in after the presidential
run-off election, which is
scheduled for June 27.
He claims that the appointment of the commissions
will improve service
delivery within the councils since none of the elected
councillors will be
sworn-in until a new president is elected.
“I
have appointed these commissions because there is a big gap between now
and
June 27,” said Chombo. “The move is aimed at making sure that service
delivery is maintained in all local authorities. As Minister of Local
Lovernment I have the duty to make sure that service delivery is not
disrupted in major cities and towns.
“All those won during the March
29 elections, including MPs, have to wait
until a clear winner in the
presidential race is found.”
Chombo, however, could not be drawn into
revealing the names of the
officials appointed to run the local
authorities.
Yesterday the MDC yesterday described Chombo’s actions as
illegal, adding
that it was a way of trying to bar elected MDC councillors
and MPs from
campaigning for Tsvangirai during the run-up to the June 27
run-off
.
Gutu East MDC MP-elect, Ransome Makamure, said: “What Chombo has
done is
illegal. It is just a way of making sure that all the elected MPs
and
councillors do not have the power to campaign for the MDC during the
coming
run-off.”
Chombo has over the years mounted a relentless
campaign to neutralize
MDC-controlled local government authorities. He has
dismissed Mayors and
councillors, the most spectacular case being that of
the last elected
executive Mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, who was deposed
by Chombo. Mudzuri
who was elected on an MDC ticket, was replaced, in
controversial
circumstances by Sekesai Makwavarara, his former deputy who
crossed over
from the MDC to join Zanu-PF.
While Chombo’s actions
have clearly been illegal, being tailored only to
protect the interests of
Zanu-PF, it was not clear how the refusal to
swear-in the recently elected
MDC councillors renders them incapable of
campaigning for their presidential
candidate in the forthcoming election, as
claimed by Makamure.
Zim Online
by Own Correspondent Thursday 29 May
2008
JOHANNESBURG – The South
African government on Wednesday dismissed
reports that it was setting up
refugee camps around the country for foreign
nationals displaced in a wave
of xenophobic violence in poor black suburbs
recently.
The home
affairs department told the media that centres that
government was setting
up for displaced foreign nationals were temporary
shelters meant to serve as
a stop-gap measure while an inter-ministerial
task team – comprising home
affairs, health, education, safety and security,
intelligence and the
minister in the presidency – was work out a long-term
solution.
"We are not setting up refugee camps . . . it is shelter for those who
have
been displaced. Refugee camps are very specific . . . Typically refugee
centres are long-term, we are really looking for a solution for the short
term," a spokesperson for the home affairs department, Siobhan McCarthy,
said in response to media reports claiming that government was setting up
refugee camps around the country.
Armed gangs of South African
men have roamed townships and shantytowns
beating, and killing African
immigrants. At least 50 immigrants were killed
in the attacks and more than
25 000 left without food or shelter after their
homes were looted and burnt
down by the gangs.
Many of the immigrants chased out of their homes
have taken refuge in
police stations, churches and government offices across
Johannesburg where
the Red Cross, Medicine Sans Frontiers and several other
aid groups are
providing assistance.
Media reports on Wednesday
claimed that seven refugee camps were to be
set up around the country for
foreigners who have fled the attacks.
The holding camps would,
“despite strong advice from respected
international aid agencies," take up
to 70 000 people who flocked to state
and municipal buildings with
increasingly unsanitary conditions, the reports
said quoting a medical
charity Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) as saying
conditions for people
seeking refuge in existing shelters were worsening.
They also said
that aid agencies feared the government had little
experience of running
what were likely to become semi-permanent refugee
camps, adding that
establishing such camps could come back to haunt the
country for many years
to come.
McCarthy said government's decision to set up shelters was
meant to
ensure that displaced immigrants had access to health services,
food and
sanitation. These shelters would accommodate up to 2 000 people,
which would
assist government in "managing who comes and who goes", she
said.
"The challenges (the conditions at police stations and
community
halls) are very critical, that's why we are doing
this."
The violent attacks on foreigners started on May 12 in
Johannesburg’s
Alexandra township of the poor before spreading to other
townships in
Diepsloot, Hillbrow, Jeppe, Cleveland, Thokoza and Tembisa
leaving thousands
of African immigrants without shelter or food after their
homes were looted
and burnt down.
The violence also spread to
the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, North
West, Mpumalanga and Western Cape. –
ZimOnline