MASVINGO - Armed police at the weekend
raided a squatter camp on the banks of Mucheke river in Masvingo city,
burnt down the plastic shacks and chased away more than 200 people including
children who lived at the camp.
The squatters, who watched in agony
as their shacks and belongings went up in smoke, had lived at the illegal
camp since about 2001 and had somehow escaped the government's controversial
urban clean-up campaign last year which the United Nations says left 700
000 people homeless after police demolished shantytowns and city backyard
cottages.
Last Sunday's demolition comes barely a week after President Robert Mugabe promised during his April 18 Independence Day speech to continue demolishing illegal settlements in cities and towns.
Masvingo police spokesman Charles Munhungei on Monday cited Mugabe's independence speech in defending the police's demolition of the squatter camp.
He said: "We are just complying with the government policy to get rid of illegal settlements in our urban areas. Even the President in his speech at independence made it clear that illegal structures will be destroyed and we are doing just that."
The government last year demolished thousands of shantytown homes and informal business kiosks in what Mugabe said was a campaign to smash crime and to restore the beauty of Zimbabwe's cities and towns.
The home demolition campaign codenamed Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out Trash) by the government drew the ire of the United Nations (UN), Western governments, local and international human rights groups who said it violated poor people's rights.
UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who flew to Harare to probe the demolitions, said in a special report that the campaign may also have violated international law.