Zimbabwe death toll rises from slum blitz

Zimbabwe death toll rises from slum blitz

• UN chief agrees to Zimbabwe visit

• Full text of MDC's reaction to UN report

• Zimbabwe officials reject 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
THE death toll in Zimbabwe's slum blitz rose this week when a man died at a transit camp in Tsholotsho, the area's Member of Parliament said Tuesday.

Police say only five people have died during the operation code-named Operation Murambatsvina, but human rights groups say the death toll is much higher.

The destruction of urban houses deemed illegal by the government was recently condemned by the United Nations as a "disastrous venture".

UN secretary general Kofi Annan is expected in Zimbabwe sometime next month for discussions with President Robert Mugabe on helping the displaced.

Tsholotsho MP Professor Jonathan Moyo identified the dead man as Lucas Luphahla. His age was not given.

"He died on Sunday night and his family is working on the funeral arrangements," Moyo said.

The United Nations estimates that some 700 000 people had lost either their homes or their livelihoods in the operation which the Zimbabwe government insists was targeting illegality in urban housing.

"The government forced these people out of Bulawayo and they were just dumped in Tsholotsho and told to go and stay with their relatives, or establish their own rural homes.

"But when many went to their villages they found they were either not welcome, their relatives had relocated or were dead. Others just found relatives unwilling to take them back, as you know the social conditions in Zimbabwe are very difficult at the moment," Moyo said.

No comment was immediately available from police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena on Tuesday afternoon.

Although the Zimbabwe government has declared a halt to the demolitions, the UN said Monday that the displacements were continuing, citing the case of Porter Farm, just outside Harare.

Opposition officials say the government has also been sending some of the displaced people back to their rubble after the situation in the transit camps became a "health disaster".

The government has told those returning to their former "structures" to apply for council permission to construct houses within the next 12 months.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com