ng Services Unit, the Combined Harare Residents Association, and the Zimbabwe Peace Project. The researchers questioned 1,195 people in 58 high density wards in Harare, Mutare and Bulawayo _ asking them about trauma, HIV/AIDS, legal issues and their losses.
Nearly one-fourth of the people interviewed had at least one person living with them with HIV/AIDS, mostly now receiving no care, treatment or nutritional support. -gThis represents a conservative number of households of about 5,407,” said the report. -gThis is an absolute minimum of 5 000 individuals whose lives are at risk.”
-gIf there was not a complex emergency prior to May 18, 2005, the Zimbabwe government-fs callous implementation of Operation Murambatsvina has now made a complex emergency a categorical fact,” said the report. -g -c Ordinary people are now suffering serious psychological disorder as a consequence of their treatment, and this will seriously impede their ability to cope with the adversity that they now must face.”
The survey results contradict claims by the Mugabe regime that it demolished the homes of criminals and illegal dwellers. In many cases, the victims were paying rates, had other official permission to live where they were, and suffered huge financial losses.
“Combined with the effects of the destruction of their homes and their livelihoods, it is even more improbable that these people will heal unaided,” the survey said. Its findings are in line with those of the highly critical UN investigation.
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