UN chief agrees to Zimbabwe visit

UN chief agrees to Zimbabwe visit

• Full text of MDC's reaction to UN report

• Zimbabwe officials rejct damning UN report

• Annan 'profoundly distressed' by UN report

• UN report lashes Mugabe regime

• UN report on 'clean up' sent to Mugabe

• Annan in thinly-veiled attack on Mugabe

• Zimbabwe police admit 5 killed in 'clean up'

• Mugabe denies thousands displaced

• UN official weeps at Mugabe terror

• UN envoy has 'good talks' with Mugabe

• US Secretary of State Rice says Zim situation 'tragic'

• Mugabe targets urban agriculture

• United Nations probes Zimbabwe 'clean up'

• Britain seeks UN intervention in Zimbabwe

• Archbishop Ncube calls on UN to arrest Mugabe

• US protests Zimbabwe's relection to UN rights panel

• Annan wants Zim off UN rights panel

• Black murder, white murder

• UN resolution will sober up Mugabe

• SA blocks UN resolution on Zimbabwe

• Annan in amazing blast at Mugabe

• 'All they do is drink tea' - Archbishop Ncube

• AU blasts Zim human rights abuses

• Mugabe to 'rationalise' rights groups

• Zim moves to outlaw charities

• MDC rejects government claims over AU report

• Blair urges Gaddafi to cut Mugabe ties

• IBA calls for ICC trial for Mugabe

• Massacre in Matabeleland

• Mugabe faces class lawsuit over massacres

By Staff Reporter

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
UNITED Nations secretary general Kofi Annan confirmed Monday that he had agreed to meet embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe following the publication of a damning UN report on his government's destruction of shantytowns.

Annan said no date had yet been set for the visit to Zimbabwe which follows an invitation extended by Mugabe in a telephone call at the weekend.

Said Annan: "He (Mugabe) did invite me to come. I would want to go to see how we can resolve some of the issues raised in the report. We and the international community would want to muster the aid necessary to help the people and also work with the government to change the situation."

The report by Annan's special envoy Anna Tibaijuka said the bulldozing of urban slums since May was "carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering" and had left some 700,000 without homes or livelihood or both.

Zimbabwe has criticised the report as hostile and false, saying it "described the operation in vastly judgmental language which clearly demonstrates its inbuilt bias against the operation".

The state-run Herald newspaper said Mugabe had spoken to Annan on Friday, the day the report was made public, and Annan agreed to visit on a date not yet given.

"President Mugabe told Mr Annan that he wondered why Zimbabwe attracted international attention for embarking on a programme to clean up its urban centres and provide decent houses and business premises to those affected by the operation," the paper said, citing Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba.

The government has defended the crackdown, dubbed "Operation Restore Order," saying it was meant to root out black market trade in foreign currency and other scarce commodities.

In her report, Tibaijuka said the demolitions piled on economic pressure on Zimbabwe, struggling with unemployment of over 70 percent, triple-digit inflation and chronic shortages of food and fuel.

Mugabe's government, which denies responsibility for the crisis, is saddled with foreign debt of about $4.5 billion and has reportedly been seeking a $1 billion loan from South Africa.

On Monday the Herald quoted Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi as accusing Tibaijuka of "whipping up the international community's emotions and sending a wrong message about Zimbabwe".

"Whites are ... jealous of blacks having an orderly life," Sekeramayi was quoted as saying.

The government says it will help affected families with building materials to put up legal structures at stands allocated amid the wreckages of the old demolished shacks.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com