Zimbabwe crackdown condemned as 2 children crushed to death
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Zimbabwe crackdown condemned as children crushed
Thu Jun 23, 2005 2:12 PM ET
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Two Zimbabwean children were crushed to death by rubble during the demolition of illegal houses this month in a government crackdown that has made tens of thousands homeless, state media reported Thursday.
The deaths were the first reported in Zimbabwe's "Operation Restore Order," which has sparked an international outcry and prompted the United Nations to dispatch a special envoy to assess the humanitarian situation.
Rights groups Amnesty International and the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said more than 200 African and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had called on the United Nations and African Union to intervene over the clean-up operation.
The groups told a news conference in Harare that NGOs had been barred from independently giving aid to affected people and instead directed to work with the government.
"The coalition of organizations urged Nigerian President (Olusegun) Obasanjo, as chair of the Africa Union, to put the crisis in Zimbabwe on the agenda of the upcoming AU Assembly," Amnesty and the COHRE said in a statement. The African Union holds its annual summit in Sirte, Libya on July 4-5.
Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper said a one-and-a-half year-old child was crushed to death by rubble in Harare's Chitungwiza township Sunday while a one-year-old similarly died earlier this month in another neighborhood.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
Former colonial power Britain and the United States added their calls for African intervention in Zimbabwe.
"If the reports are simply half true ... this is a situation of serious international concern and no government that subscribes to human rights and democracy should allow this kind of thing to go on effectively under their noses," British Foreign Minister Jack Straw told a news conference in London.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called events in the southern African state "tragic." -
If the world does not do something, it is the same as validating Mugabe's actions.
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Pity those poor children. They are so innocent.
