ZIMBABWE: UN hopes for greater access to displaced

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 15 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations country team in Zimbabwe will meet with government representatives to finalise an appeal to help those made homeless by the controversial Operation Murambatsvina ('Drive out Filth') campaign in urban areas.

UN Resident Coordinator Dr Agostinho Zacarias told IRIN on Monday that the team had made concrete progress in formulating the appeal.

"The government of Zimbabwe has received our proposal - the draft appeal - and they are looking at it. They said they would be coming back to us with suggested amendments or adjustments they want made," Zacarias said.

Although he hoped the final appeal would be launched this week, Zacarias noted that this could only happen "after our discussions with the government, and we have to coordinate with our colleagues in New York [at UN headquarters]".

Operation Murambatsvina affected over 700,000 people after the government demolished informal homes and businesses in the country's urban centres.

The campaign was heavily criticised by UN Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who said it "breached both national and international human rights law provisions guiding evictions" and had resulted in a humanitarian crisis.

News reports last week quoted Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) as saying the government was preventing aid from reaching displaced families.

About 2,260 people have been living at Hopley Farm on the southern outskirts of the capital, Harare, where they had gone for a week or more "without a decent meal, clean water or sanitary facilities or temporary shelter", ZLHR said in a statement.

Zacarias told IRIN that "WFP [World Food Programme], IOM [International Organisation for Migration], UNICEF [the UN Children's Fund] and MSF [Medecins Sans Frontieres] have all been able to access the people at Hopley Farm since late last week" after negotiations with authorities.

"Of course, the situation regarding access [to people in need] is on the agenda for our discussions with the government. We are not quite sure how many other 'Hopley Farms' there might be around the country but ... we had difficulty in accessing the people there. We have to negotiate access while we discuss strategies on how to address the situation in its entirety," he noted.

Government participation in drafting the appeal was crucial to this.

"This appeal is the result of wanting to organise things with the government ... the really important point is bringing the government along with us, so that it opens up the humanitarian space [in the country]," Zacarias stressed.

[ENDS]