The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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Mugabe is another Idi Amin, says Uganda
          July 30 2005 at 04:07PM

      Uganda's main state-run newspaper has slammed Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe, comparing his policies to those of former Ugandan dictator
Idi Amin.

      In an editorial on Friday lamenting the state of affairs in Zimbabwe,
The New Vision said Mugabe's controversial land change programme and recent
demolition of shantytowns were akin to steps taken during Amin's disastrous
rule.

      "Zimbabwe is starving," stated the paper, which is owned by Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni's Movement organisation and has until now been
silent on a situation that many African governments have refused to condemn.

      Mugabe's government "is subjecting its own poor citizens to extreme
suffering with unplanned slum demolitions", it went on to say, noting that
Zimbabwe was also seeking food aid in contrast to neighbouring South Africa.

      "Both countries are working out long-term legacies following a history
of white minority rule," the newspaper commented. "But that is where the
similarities end."

      "In Zimbabwe, the Mugabe government appears to have its own survival
as the primary focus. It has played the populist card in grabbing land from
white commercial farmers and rewarded its cronies.

      "This has resonance in the Ugandan experience when the Amin government
grabbed businesses from the Asian community in 1972, precipitating economic
collapse that we are yet to fully recover from," the New Vision said.

      It referred to Amin's campaign to expel long-term South Asian
residents who had come to Uganda during British colonial rule and formed the
mainstay of the economy.

      About 90 000 Indians and Pakistanis were driven from the country,
causing economic chaos and driving the already destitute nation into further
impoverishment, a situation the paper says exists now in Zimbabwe.

      "Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed, there is no food coming from farms
that had long been a food basket for the region," it said, praising South
Africa's less drastic land redistribution programme as "how it should be".

      The UN and some western nations have denounced the demolitions that
have left 700 000 people homeless but most of Africa's governments have
remained mute.

          .. This article was originally published on page 4 of The Star on
July 30, 2005

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CBS News

Zimbabwe's Weakening Opposition
(Page 1 of 2)

July 30, 2005

(Weekly Standard) This column was written by Roger Bate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In recent times the United Nations has seemed a sclerotic bureaucracy mired
in corruption and pointlessness. But now President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe
has presented U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan with a golden opportunity to
reestablish the reputation of the organization. Mugabe has invited Annan to
visit. He should go, before it is too late. Civil war is becoming more
likely, and increasingly so, as the opposition party collapses and hope of a
political solution dissolves.

Mugabe's Operation Murambatsvina, or "clean up the filth," largely involves
clearing informal settlements with bulldozers and driving out residents with
the clothes on their backs and the possessions they can carry. At least
700,000 people have been made homeless and many more are affected by loss of
livelihood. Refugees are further plagued by HIV and other infections.

Churches and charities have been aggressively discouraged by the government
from offering aid and shelter. The opposition party has been similarly
ineffectual, although it must be said that they operate under horrific
conditions. Six of 57 members of Parliament of the opposing Movement for
Democratic Change have been murdered or have died from the effects of
torture by the police and army in the past few years. But the MDC is being
destroyed by an internal power struggle, which has escalated since the
clearance campaign. The party's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai finds his position
in jeopardy. A variety of sources say that his senior spokesman, Welshman
Ncube, is planning to oust the leader and seize control of the party -- a
charge Ncube has denied.

MDC member Frank Chamunorwa was attacked by thugs from his own party. The
Daily Telegraph's David Blair spoke with Chamunorwa: "I have never been so
dejected in my life because my own party perpetrated atrocities on me," said
Chamunorwa, 55. He is suspected of plotting against Tsvangirai. What makes
Chamunorwa especially bitter is that he helped found the MDC six years ago
and was then almost murdered by the ruling Zanu PF party. Chamunorwa
maintains that there is no coup planned. "Morgan has our mandate, more than
half the population want him to rule but his ineptitude and indecision may
cost him and Zimbabwe dearly," he said.

The assault on Chamunorwa was only one of many. The Daily Telegraph reports
that other MDC thugs tried to murder Peter Guhu, a party official, who was
forced to flee to South Africa after suffering serious injuries. Another
member, Diamond Karanda, 31, was beaten up inside the MDC's headquarters in
Harare on June 16. He was dragged into the boardroom and assaulted so badly
that he still cannot walk properly. Tsvangirai responded by expelling 20
members.

As the country collapses the MDC is paralyzed by violent factional rivalry
but brave efforts are still being made. MDC legal affairs spokesman, David
Coltart is in Australia trying to raise the possibility that Zimbabwe will
be charged with "crimes against humanity." "I believe [the Mugabe regime]
violates article 7 of the Treaty of Rome, the statute that set up the
International Criminal Court, which defines the forcible transfer of a
population as a crime against humanity," says Coltart. But while Coltart
does his best to get Australia and New Zealand to push for an ICC
indictment, he knows he may not have a party to return to (nor is it certain
that he can return to Zimbabwe, given that the national airline has run out
of fuel and is, according to sources, apparently not able to do routine
maintenance on its few remaining planes, given lack of spare parts). It is
also possible that Coltart will be attacked by his own party when he returns
home.

Coltart said the party "appears to be intent on tearing up everything we
have worked so hard to build up over the last few, very difficult years." He
added that Tsvangirai's expulsion of 20 junior members was an inadequate
response to the violence. "I cannot believe that the youths involved in
these despicable acts acted independently. It is common cause that they were
unemployed and it is equally clear that they had access to substantial
funding," said Coltart. "The instructions to act must have come from people
within the party as no one else would have the detailed knowledge the youths
had access to. In expelling the youths and relatively low-ranking members of
the security team we have only dealt with the symptoms of the problem, not
its root cause."

Coltart claimed that Tsvangirai had conducted an "inadequate investigation"
into the violence and breached the MDC's rulebook by failing to establish a
formal disciplinary committee. "If we do not send out a clear and
unequivocal message to Zimbabweans in general and in particular to our own
members and staff that violence will not be tolerated, then we will simply
reduce the standing of the MDC to that of our opposition, Zanu PF," he said.

There is a faint chance that the United Nations will effect a peaceful
outcome. Kofi Annan says he intends to visit Zimbabwe. Previously, he sent a
special envoy to report on the forced displacement of citizens and on Monday
his envoy delivered strong criticism, calling Mugabe's campaign a violation
of international law. Annan himself called it a "catastrophic injustice" to
Zimbabwe's poorest. Mugabe has unsurprisingly criticized the U.N. report,
but is still willing to play host to Annan. This could mean that Mugabe is
willing to cooperate, or it could mean that he simply does not believe the
United Nations is a threat.

"He did invite me to come," Annan said on Monday. "I would want to go to see
how we can resolve some of the issues raised in the report. But I have not
set a date yet."

He had better go soon or he will only be there to write the obituary of the
country.

Roger Bate is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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Boston Globe

Annan's new direction
July 30, 2005

ROBERT MUGABE, Zimbabwe's former national liberation leader, has transformed
his country from one of Africa's bright lights into an inferno of
impoverishment, disease, and repression. The UN secretary general, Kofi
Annan, has properly asserted his moral authority by condemning the massive
forced evictions of shantytowns there.

Annan's gesture of siding with the victimized citizens of a UN member state
was all the more striking for breaking with the past practice of allowing
the United Nations to serve as a club of governments that places the
interests of its members above those of humanity.
A corrosive report from Annan's special envoy for Zimbabwe, Anna Tibaijuka,
a Tanzanian economist, was impossible to ignore. Upon delivery of the report
last week, Tibaijuka said Mugabe's Operation Murambatsvina -- derisively
called Drive Out the Trash by Mugabe's minions -- ''breached both national
and international human rights law provisions guiding evictions, thereby
precipitating a humanitarian crisis."

Annan shed his customary discretion, declaring that the brutal demolitions
of homes and merchant stalls have done ''a catastrophic injustice to as many
as 700,000 of Zimbabwe's poorest citizens, through indiscriminate actions
carried out with disquieting indifference to human suffering." What is
heartening about Annan's willingness to stake out an unambiguous
humanitarian position on the part of the UN is an implied recognition of
lessons learned.

The Rwandan genocide, the UN's failure to prevent the slaughter of Bosnian
Muslims under its protection, the failure to stop the ongoing genocide in
Darfur -- these are among the memories that may have spurred Annan to call
on Mugabe's regime to cease the demolitions and hold the perpetrators
''fully accountable for their actions."

For Annan's call for corrective action in Zimbabwe to become something more
than good intentions, however, some of the UN reforms he has approved will
have to be implemented. Certainly the UN Human Rights Commission cannot
continue to be infiltrated by regimes such as Zimbabwe's that are among the
most flagrant abusers of human rights. There must be standards for
membership in the UN Human Rights Commission for it to be worthy of its
name. And that commission has to be endowed with the authority to recommend
life-saving missions either by regional organizations such as the African
Union or by a UN intervention force that is properly trained, equipped, and
funded.

Millions of people in the world need a UN that is willing and able to
protect them from their rulers -- instead of protecting those rulers from
outside interference in their internal affairs.

© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2005 4:55 PM
Subject: Just sitting in the dusty villages

Dear Family and Friends,
For the last three months almost every single report from Zimbabwe has
been about the destruction of homes, stalls and informal structures in our
cities and towns. At first, when we could actually see the bulldozers, the
huge clouds of dust and the piles of rubble in our towns and
neighbourhoods, it was all very real and terrifying. Then we saw people
desperately looking for shelter, carrying their belongings and lining the
roads in their hundreds trying to get transport to move the remnants of
their homes out of town and away from the bulldozers. Now, two months
later, there is not much left for the ordinary passer by to see on the
roadsides of Marondera. There are still piles of rubble here and there but
mostly there are just empty spaces in the town. It is hard to believe that
just two months ago you could buy a banana or a twist of newspaper
brimming with ground nuts at the street corner. You could haggle with a
vendor over a huge orange mango, an avocado or a bowl of tomatoes or even
buy a hand made hammock on the side of the road. You could have your shoes
re heeled, your zip fixed or your bicycle spokes tightened by skilled self
employed men and women earning an honest living from the pavements and
alleyways all across Marondera. Now the town is virtually deserted, the
streets are quiet, you cannot even buy a banana on the roadside and
everywhere, still everywhere, the four month old ZANU PF election posters
cling to our lamp posts: "We are proud to be Zimbabweans on our land", the
banners say. "Our land is our sovereignty" the slogans shout at us as we
walk past them.  We walk because after seven weeks there is still no
petrol or diesel, almost no buses or taxis are moving and very few
ordinary vehicles are still on the roads.

And the question everyone is asking is what has happened to all those
people whose homes and stalls were demolished. Where are they living now,
how are they surviving, have they got enough to eat? There are more
questions than answers. This week I talked with a man who lives in a rural
village and I am haunted by his stories, in shock at his descriptions. He
told me of people arriving from the cities but of there being no empty
houses where they can live. He told me of families doubling and tripling
up to try and accommodate the desperate newcomers. He told me of meagre
meals being shared and then watered down and shared yet again. He
described how there was no space for people's possessions and so lounge
suites and wardrobes were being stored on top of roofs - exposed to the
wind, the dust and the dew. There are not enough houses in the villages,
the wells are already running dry, all vegetable gardening has stopped due
to the shortage of water and there is no land for all these new people to
scratch a living on. It was this very excuse of congested rural villages
that the ZANU PF government used when they seized all the commercial farms
and turned our country from a food exporter to a begging bowl. Now the
rural villages are even more congested as yet more and more people arrive.
People who once fixed shoes and bicycles, wove baskets and chairs, knitted
jerseys or made hammocks now they just sit in the dusty villages,
homeless, unemployed, hungry and completely at the mercy of the government
systems to whom they will have to turn, for every single one of their most
basic human needs. Control is complete. Until next week, with love, cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle 30 July 2005 http://africantears.netfirms.com
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Mail and Guardian

      Zim police arrest opposition MP after own complaint

      Harare, Zimbabwe

      30 July 2005 08:19

            Zimbabwean police on Friday charged a leading opposition
lawmaker under the country's tough security laws after arresting him when he
went to file a complaint of vandalism against ruling-party supporters, his
lawyer said.

            Gift Chimanikire, veteran trade unionist and member of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested together with an aide
inside a Harare police station on Thursday when he reported the stoning of
his car by ruling-party supporters.

            Lawyer Alec Muchadehama said Chimanikire, who is also the
opposition party's deputy secretary general, and his aide, Edmore Mungofa,
were still in detention at Harare's main police station on Friday evening
and added he had been charged with inciting violence.

            "They are still in police custody and as we speak the police are
searching their homes looking for firearms," Muchadehama said.

            "The police say one of their informants said Chimanikire
produced a pistol when he was mobbed by Zanu-PF youths. We are trying to
secure their release without going to court.

            "We know the allegations are baseless and the searches are not
going to yield anything."

            An MDC spokesperson said Chimanikire had gone to the Mbare
township near Harare to attend the inauguration of a vegetable market when
he had the run-in with the youths from President Robert Mugabe's party.

            "He went to attend the function in his official capacity as MP
for the constituency but he was greeted by hostile Zanu-PF youths," MDC
spokesperson Maxwell Zimuto said, adding that in the ensuing melée, the
youths beat up Chimanikire's bodyguards and stoned his car. -- Sapa-AFP

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      Demolitions in Zimbabwe hamper Swiss aid work

            swissinfo   July 30, 2005 6:31 PM

                  The UN says thousands of Zimbabweans have been left
homeless (Keystone)
            Swiss aid agencies say Zimbabwe's controversial slum-clearance
programme has severely affected their work in the African country.

                  On Thursday Harare said that the demolitions, which razed
several townships to the ground, had come to an end. But the United Nations
estimates that the operation has left about 700,000 people without homes.

            The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has
channelled emergency cash reserves into Zimbabwe to help people affected by
the clearances.

            The agency has already poured SFr1.39 million ($1.07 million)
into the country so far this year, roughly the same amount as was spent on
Zimbabwe for the whole of 2004, with SFr680,000 earmarked for food and milk
distribution.

            "Zimbabwe is in a vicious circle of structural and social
collapse, made worse by the town clearances," SDC spokesman Jean-Philippe
Jutzi told swissinfo.

            "The main problem we face is corruption. We have to be vigilant
to make sure this money reaches the intended areas."

            Setback

            Swiss charity Heks has been working in Zimbabwe since before the
country's independence in 1980. It said that its programmes had suffered a
huge setback as a result of the government's policy.

            Spokeswoman Barbara Müller told swissinfo that the worst
affected project was a workshop that had been in operation for eight years
in the township of Chitungwiza, providing training in carpentry and
needlework to enable local people to earn a living.

            "The premises have been completely demolished and much of the
equipment has also been lost," said Müller.

            "Former trainees have also had their workshops destroyed, taking
away their ability to make a living for themselves."

            Work goes on

            Müller added that the extent of the damage was not yet clear,
but confirmed that several staff members had lost their homes.

            "We must find out how we can get together and continue our work
under the changed circumstances. The people who have lost everything... are
resilient and will carry on despite this setback."

            The Zimbabwean government has defended the slum-clearance
campaign, arguing that it was a means of reducing crime.

            It has also pledged to build new homes for those who have been
uprooted.

            Donation and protest

            In a related development, the Geneva-based World Council of
Churches has donated SFr500,000 in aid and issued a protest to Zimbabwe's
government.

            It said the clearances of slums had been carried out "at a time
when the rural areas are particularly unable to absorb those expelled from
the urban areas because of the effects of drought".

            The protest comes in the same week that the UN Security Council
discussed a report on the demolition of the slums.

            The report, compiled by UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka, said
the campaign violated international law.

            UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has described the clearance
programme as a "catastrophic injustice to Zimbabwe's poorest citizens".

            swissinfo, Matthew Allen

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IOL

Two SA pilots 'home from Zimbabwe'
          July 30 2005 at 02:02PM

      Harare - Zimbabwe has deported two South African pilots arrested for
flying a planeload of mercenaries on what officials said was a failed
mission to topple the government of Equatorial Guinea, their lawyer said on
Saturday.

      The two were due to be released from prison on Saturday but their
lawyer Jonathan Samkange said they were freed on Friday and sent overland to
South Africa.

      The pilots were arrested in March 2004 with 68 other men travelling on
South African passports after their plane was impounded during a stop-over
at Harare International airport.

      Zimbabwe officials said they were part of a larger plot to stage a
coup in the oil-rich state of Equatorial Guinea, which in November sentenced
11 foreigners to between 14 and 34 years on charges related to the plot.

      The pilots were convicted of contravening aviation and firearms laws
and sentenced to 16 months in Jail at Harare's Chikurubi Maximum prison.

      "As I speak they are on the South African side at Beitbridge (border
post)," Samkange said. "I am sure they travelled in a prison vehicle."

      Samkange said he had been assured the two would be released and
deported on Saturday and he had bought their air tickets, but was surprised
authorities freed them late on Friday without consulting him.

      In May, Zimbabwe released 62 of the men, who had served 12 months in
prison. They had denied being part of a coup plot and said they were
travelling to Democratic Republic of Congo to provide mine security
services.

      Two other members of the group had earlier been acquitted by a Harare
magistrate, one died in prison and two others were released on health
grounds after falling ill.

      The group's leader Briton Simon Mann, remains in prison serving a
4-year jail term for seeking to possess dangerous weapons and immigration
charges.

      South Africa has said it plans to try a number of the men under its
own strict anti-mercenary laws, although it is unclear if the pilots will
face South African charges.

      The case has also involved Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher, who pleaded guilty in South Africa to financing
the coup attempt. He paid a fine and received a suspended sentence.
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angus-reid.com
 

July 30, 2005
South Africans Divided on Zimbabwe Question

(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Adults in South Africa are split on the desired course of action in dealing with a neighbouring country, according to a poll by ACNielsen. 40 per cent of respondents support a human rights-anchored form of intervention, advocating pressure on the Zimbabwean government to uphold human rights.

Zimbabwe’s government—headed by Robert Mugabe since 1980—has been repeatedly criticized for human rights abuses. 35 per cent of South African respondents believe the neighbouring country’s sovereignty must be respected and the people in Zimbabwe should sort out their own problems, while 25 per cent endorse the concept of "quiet diplomacy"—operating behind the scenes.

The United Nations (UN) estimates that close to 4 million of Zimbabwe’s 13 million inhabitants are in need of food relief. Earlier this month, the UN condemned Mugabe’s Operation Restore Order, a government-sponsored urban clearance campaign that has affected more than 700,000 inhabitants through housing evictions and demolitions.

On Jul. 13, South African deputy-president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka made her first official trip to Zimbawe. Following a meeting with Zimbabwe’s joint vice-president Joyce Mujuru, the South African deputy-president declared, "There is always a co-ordinated approach to assist Zimbabwe. We need to understand as well the extent of the challenges and the impact on the people. I was getting a global understanding of the challenge."

Polling Data

Which one of the following do you think would be the best action for the South African government on Zimbabwe?

A human rights-anchored form of intervention,
advocating pressure on the Zimbabwean
government to practice the type of human rights
that South Africans enjoy

40%

Respecting sovereignty—Zimbabwe politics
should not be interfered with and Zimbabweans
should sort out their own problems

35%

"Quiet diplomacy"—Ordinary people would not
necessarily know what is happening behind the
scenes, it is good to operate in this way

25%

Source: ACNielsen
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 2,500 South African adults, conducted in late May 2005. Margin of error is 1.3 per cent.
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Angola Press Agency

Zimbabwe`s print workers hold strike

HARARE, 07/30 - Workers in the Zimbabwe`s print industry are on an
indefinite strike to press for a 200-percent salary increase.

"The workers, who have been on strike since Monday, have threatened not to
go back to work until their demands are met," a Zimbabwe Graphical Workers
Union official said on Thursday.

For the past four days, business in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare and
Masvingo has been brought to a standstill as workers press for the salary
hike.

The official said although salaries had been increased by 30 percent this
month, the workers rejected the increment as insignificant compared to the
ever-increasing cost of living.

The National Employment Council had given the workers another 20 percent
increase but this had not helped much.

Workers said they would continue with the industrial action until their
demands were met as the cost of living had skyrocketed.

They urged the responsible authorities to consider their grievances
seriously.

The least paid worker in the print industry earns 900,000 Zimbabwean dollars
(about 51 US dollars) per month.
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Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe

Zanu PF, MDC talks to be confined to ....

The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-30

HOPES for the resuscitation of talks between Zanu PF and the MDC have been
dashed. It appears that the political pendulum has swung too far in favour
of a broader internal settlement, namely constitutional reforms.

The move has rendered inter-party dialogue a secondary issue.
Zanu PF insiders said inter party dialogue  - as part of the resolution to
patch up the political and socio-economic cracks that pose a threat to
internal and regional stability -was now not an issue.
Instead, they said, the focus had shifted to constitutional reforms.
They said the ruling party had juggled with the national agenda at a pace
that those insisting on talks could not keep up with.
The insiders added that dialogue between the feuding political parties,
could have served a purpose in the period after the 2002 presidential
election won by President Robert Mugabe by over 400 000 votes against MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
After the MDC cried foul, its sympathisers from Europe and the West started
pressing for regime change.
"Talks then could have led to the acceptance of the election result and
subsequently President Mugabe. Some people within Zanu PF and South Africa
have moved from the insistence of talks and more towards constitutional
reform or the return of the rejected draft constitution," the sources said.
"Dialogue in Parliament may lead to a referendum with tangible results."
The latest development comes against the backcloth of confirmed reports that
the opposition party has reconstituted a delegation for talks led by
secretary general Welshman Ncube.
Insiders in both government and Zanu PF yesterday said the ruling party had
resolved that it was no longer necessary to re-engage the opposition outside
Parliament to resolve the perceived political impasse that has attracted
international attention.
While Ncube confirmed that his former team on the stalled dialogue had been
re-appointed at the party's national consultative meeting about three weeks
ago, ruling party spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira, on the other hand said,
engagement with the opposition in Parliament was enough adding that the
issue of dialogue outside the august House was out of the question.
Ncube said: "All that happened is the re-confirmation of a dialogue
delegation a month ago by the party's national council that includes all the
other people who were in that team when Zanu PF walked out of the talks."
The MDC secretary-general, who is reported to be falling out of favour with
party president Morgan Tsvangirai over various issues, said there was
nothing new about his re-appointment as the head of talks in the MDC.
He said the move was taken in the event there was need for dialogue.
Asked whether Zanu PF was preparing for any possible talks amid reports of
international pressure to do so, Shamuyarira replied: "We talk with them in
Parliament. That is why Parliament is there. We will meet them and talk to
them there. There are no formal talks with the MDC. Let the international
community tell the MDC to talk with us in Parliament where we meet every
week."
However, Ncube stressed that the MDC would not beg for talks with Zanu PF.
"Although we need dialogue to return to democracy we are not going to beg
for talks. It was Zanu PF that walked out of dialogue and they have
maintained that position up to now," Ncube said.
Ncube was the head of the MDC delegation, while justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa led the Zanu PF team when the talks kicked off soon after the
presidential poll.
However, dialogue between the two protagonists was aborted months later
after a stalemate on the agenda.
The opposition insisted that President Mugabe's legitimacy must be addressed
while the ruling party wanted Tsvangirai to withdraw his court challenge on
President Mugabe's victory.
Thereafter, several efforts were made by a Commonwealth troika comprising
Heads of States from South Africa, Nigeria and Australia, to bring the two
parties back to the negotiating table, but all in vain. With Zanu PF now
commanding the majority of seats in Parliament, the ruling party is busy
working on re-introducing the Senate.
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Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe

'Let's work together on UN report'

The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Jul-30

NATIONAL Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (Nango) director,
Jonah Mudehwe on Thursday said the major challenges facing NGOs and civil
society after UN special envoy Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka's report on the
clean-up is following up on its findings and recommendations so they become
binding.
Reacting to the report, largely discredited by authorities in Harare as
false and biased, Mudehwe said its benefits would only be achieved if every
sector was willing to follow up on issues raised.
The government has dismissed the report as one-sided, saying it takes no
cognisance of safety nets it has put to alleviate the plight of
Murambatsvina victims.
Nango said there was need for a thorough post mortem to chart the way
forward and draw up a programme of action to address problems brought about
by the displacement of people, especially in urban areas.
"The special envoy's report posits for the NGO sector and civil society the
challenge to make follow up actions to ensure the findings and
recommendations are binding.
 "The benefit of the report can only be realised to the extent to which we
are committed to follow up on the issues raised in the report," he said.
Some of Tibaijuka's recommendations are that government halts demolitions of
illegal structures and provides shelter for the affected.
Nango also recommended that dialogue between civic groups and the government
should be improved to avert a humanitarian crisis, Mudehwe said.
"Nango also recommends that dialogue and mutual understanding between
government and civil society improves, along with the working environment of
human rights defenders and humanitarian agencies for the benefit of affected
people before there is an irreversible humanitarian catastrophe," he said.
Nango, Mudehwe added, had also been overwhelmed by the positive response
Tibaijuka got from government during her two-week tour of duty here.
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