Over the past five weeks the Government of Zimbabwe has been responsible for a human tragedy across the country. Under the cover name "Restory Order" police, army and bulldozers have destroyed urban housing and businesses in high density suburbs, housing cooperatives and informal settlements. This has left tens of thousands of households without access to shelter, food and clean water.

The number of internally displaced people has risen to over 300’000 and government is denying them access to relief, such as food and emergency shelter. Thousands of children, the elderly and the ill face the prospect of disease, destitution and in some cases, death from hunger, untreated water and exposure to winter temperatures in the open. Some of the most vulnerable are dying already.

To guarantee access to independent relief for the affected people interventions by the United Nations and the African Union are urgently needed. Zimbabwe Watch therefore calls on the African Union (AU) 1 and the United Nations (UN) to ensure an immediate end to the destruction of homes and livelihoods and unrestricted access for Humanitarian Aid Agencies to the Internally Displaced People to prevent a humanitarian disaster.

Zimbabwe Watch urges the government of Zimbabwe to

• immediately stop the evictions and ensure immediate access to independent emergency aid for the victims of the mass forced evictions.
• insure access to adequate housing, compensation for goods and property lost and registration for future housing.

• seek unrestricted independent access for humanitarian aid organisations in Zimbabwe and examine in a coordinated fashion whether the continued use of food and housing as a political weapon in that country is sufficiently systematic, widespread, and focused on opposition supporters to warrant referral to the UN Security Council.

• take initiatives to ensure that the relevant bodies of the United Nations undertake immediate and effective actions to end the forced evictions and allow access to independent humanitarian aid
• address the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe bilaterally with African states.

• address the situation in Zimbabwe as an urgent matter at the forthcoming AU Assembly in Libya from 4 to 5 July and to seek unrestricted access for independent humanitarian aid in Zimbabwe.