The demolitions were carried out ironically to pave way for the creation of an animal sanctuary. Strong objections by the affected families, civil society and the private media had fallen on deaf ears as the Police insisted they were acting on ‘orders from above’. However the brave ruling by Judge Ndewere brought a temporary relief to the traumatized families whose future at the farm remain uncertain.
CNRG wishes to congratulate Judge Ndewere for upholding the rule of law and the constitution by ordering the Zimbabwe Republic Police to immediately stop the unlawful demolitions.
The demolitions, though at a much smaller scale, were conducted with the same ruthlessness of Operation Murambatsvina of 2005 which left close to a million Zimbabweans homeless. The then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan dispatched special envoy Anna Tibaijuka to Zimbabwe whose fact finding report stated:
Operation Restore Order, while purporting to target illegal dwellings and structures and to clamp down on alleged illicit activities, was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering, and, in repeated cases, with disregard to several provisions of national and international legal frameworks.
The unfortunate events at Arnold Farm aptly mirrors the absence of human security for the majority of the Zimbabwean people whose land can easily be grabbed without compensation. It also brings to the fore the insatiable greed of the ruling elites who will never have enough of the country’s natural resources, including land.
In the meanwhile, CNRG calls on the Zimbabwe government to:
· Allow international and local humanitarian organizations to assist the affected families with emergency relief in the form of food and temporary shelter
· Immediately abandon its relocation plan and instead assist the affected families with financial and material support to reconstruct their homes
· Allow civil society and faith based organisations to offer psycho-social support to the affected families, in particular women and children.
Post published in: Human Rights