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.
Zimbabwe Watch urges the United Nations to
- 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.
Zimbabwe Watch urges the Dutch government to
- 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.
Zimbabwe Watch urges the Chair of the African Union and all member states to
- 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.
- Documents on Murambatsvina
1 | In spite of affirmations by AU spokesperson Desmond Orjiako on 24. June 2005 that it would not be "proper" for the AU to interfere in the "internal" affairs of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Watch is of the opinion that AU member states made an explicit commitment to promote and protect the human rights of the people of Africa (which is stated in the Constitutive Act of the AU). The AU must therefore take action to protect the rights of African men, women and children. |