The report confirms what every Zimbabwean has always known, the vindictive, callous sceptical disregard of human rights, dignity and good governance on the part of the Harare regime.

The action taken by the Zimbabwe government against thousands of Zimbabweans commencing on the 19 May 2005 under the inappropriately named Operation Murambatsvina was an ill thought and malicious attack on the poor Zimbabweans that have seen the destruction of homes, businesses and left many homeless and without any means of sustenance. The report also confirms that more than 700 000,00 people were affected by the operation.

The extent of the Zimbabwean crisis as exposed by the United Nations report, the fact that 80% of Zimbabweans live under the poverty datum line, the fact that the nations has endured 8 years of successive economic decline means that the regime has failed. Under normal circumstances in any other decent country, the regime would have resigned. The most respect that this regime can do to the people of Zimbabwe is to resign and let Zimbabweans agree to make a new constitution by them for them which would lead eventually to free and fair elections under the international supervision.

Now that the report has been presented, the real work of the United Nations and the International Community has begun. It now remains to be seen whether the report will be shelved in the Secretary General’s office where it will gather dust or it will be the catalyst for the decisive action and reprimand that so many Zimbabweans have been asking the United Nations to take against the regime. The report is an indictment against the regime but more than that has exposed the humanitarian extent of the crisis in Zimbabwe.
The United Nations is the fore being challenged to act and hopefully it will rise to the challenge. Equally, we also wait to see the response of the regional countries such as South Africa and others, many of which to the average Zimbabweans have been seen as supporters and ‘camaraderie’ of the Harare regime.

Surely the report presents an opportunity to those governments to make a decisive break with the past relations of collusion with the Harare regime.
The United Nations record on Africa has been less than satisfactory. One recalls the massacres of the Tutees by Hutus in Rwanda in July 1994. One recalls the recent horror scenes of the war in Southern Sudan’s Darfur region where thousands were killed by the Janjaweed militia. One recalls the war in the Democratic Republic and in Liberia where many Africans feel that something could have been done by the United Nations.