Affordable Housing Institute : US

The United Nations — or more properly, its urban development arm UN Habitat — has done the world a service by looking crime in the face and calling it a crime:

 

U.N. Slams Zimbabwe on Slum Destruction

 

UNITED NATIONS — Zimbabwe’s destruction of urban slums is a “disastrous venture” that has left 700,000 people without homes or jobs, violated international law and created a grave humanitarian crisis, a harshly worded U.N. report said Friday.

 

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the report was “profoundly distressing.” A Zimbabwean opposition member called it “music in my ears.”

 

The report (link in .pdf; 1.7 meg file) detailed the devastating extent of Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, for the first time. It said a further 2.4 million people have been affected by the countrywide campaign that began with little warning on May 19 and has seen thousands of shantytowns, ramshackle markets and makeshift homes demolished.

 

“While purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, (the operation) was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering,” the report said.

 

Like AHI’s Kecia Rust, who blogged about this last week, I have been profoundly angered by this wanton destruction.  For your convenience, I’ve re-posted Kecia’s shocking before-and-after aerial photos of the site:

 

 

 

Those whose lives have been smashed did nothing to deserve it.  Mr. Mugabe has cloaked his crime in the hypocritical camouflage of progressivism:

 

President Robert Mugabe’s government has defended the operation as an urban cleanup drive and has promised to help the displaced rebuild.  [In 2010! — Ed.]

 

Or transparently absurd vaporware:

 

The government has pledged $325 million to provide 1.2 million houses or building plots by 2008, but economists say Zimbabwe cannot afford such a project at a time of triple-digit inflation and a severe food crisis, the report said.

 

Or deflective blame:

 

“One would call upon Britain and the European Union to stop their campaign to vilify our economy. Were it not for their sanctions, our economy wouldn’t be where it is today.”

 

Or righteous stonewalling:

 

The state-owned Herald quoted the country’s U.N. representative, Boniface Chidyausiku, as saying: “The President will make a comment at the appropriate time.  Zimbabwe is not under any inquisition to warrant 48 hours of responding.”

 

Or bald-faced guilt-shifting:

 

He demanded the international community raise funds so Zimbabwe can provide cheaper housing for its people.

 

Translation: “We destroyed their housing, so you should give us money to rebuild it.”

 

Though the UN Habitat report is careful not to ascribe evil intention:

 

“Even if [note the suppositional — Ed.] motivated by a desire to ensure a semblance of order in the chaotic manifestations of rapid urbanization and rising poverty characteristic of African cities, nonetheless Operation Restore Order turned out to be a disastrous venture,” the report said.

 

It is unsparing in its criticism of the consequences and calls for change:

 

Tibaijuka’s report said the clearance campaign was based on a set of colonial-era laws and policies “that were used as a tool of segregation and social exclusion.” The African nation gained independence from Britain in 1980.

 

“The humanitarian consequences of Operation Restore Order are enormous,” she said.

She called for a large-scale international humanitarian operation to help the masses of poor people left without housing or jobs.

 

I have been to an African slum, and however one perceives it, whatever one may think of it, the slum is a community, where people who have almost nothing are nevertheless seeking to make something, starting with a community:

 

 

Children in Kibera

 

 

Co-op bakery started in Kibera (note email address, nairobiself@yahoo.co.uk)

 

Board members, saving co-operative, Mlolongo, Nairobi

 

Slums need to be upgraded, not bulldozed.

 

Francis Umunde, member of Settlement Executive Committee, Soweto East, KIbera, Nairobi

 

Co-operative built demonstration house, Athi River, Nairobi

 

There are moments when the only action we can take is severely limited and hopelessly inadequate.  At such times, we must do what we can.  Sometimes all we can do is witness, and speak the truth, where we see it and to anyone who will listen.

 

Sometimes that is the start of doing more. 

 

Good for you, UN Habitat.  Good for you.

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