HARARE Up to one million Zimbabweans have been internally displaced by the countrys decade-long political crisis and are being denied access to humanitarian assistance, according to a report published last week. According to the report, titled Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2009 which was published by the
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), there are between 570 000 and one million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Zimbabwe.
NRC secretary general Elisabeth Rasmusson accused the governments of Zimbabwe, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Pakistan of
overlooking the plight of IDPs, deliberately refusing to acknowledge their existence.
Instead they used instead terms like dislocated populations, mobile and vulnerable populations, evacuees or migrants.
Arguably, these are attempts to deny IDPs access to the humanitarian assistance that they are entitled to under international law,
Rasmusson said.
President Robert Mugabes government has downplayed the extent of Zimbabwes IDP crisis which has haunted the southern African country
since he embarked on a controversial land reform programme in 2000.
A significant number of the IDPs are former farm workers while others are families displaced by a 2005 slum destruction programme and by
political violence two years ago.
But International Cooperation Minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga last year contested UN claims that more than 40 000 Zimbabwean IDPs
were in urgent need of assistance, telling the world bodys humanitarian coordinator Agostinho Zacarias that the Harare government
disassociated itself from the unsubstantiated assertions until such a time that they are substantiated.
She denied there were still any victims of political violence and said it was inappropriate for the UN to refer to coping strategies used
by internally displaced persons unless the world body had evidence of the existence and location of the displaced people.
Thousands of supporters from the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) wing led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
were chased away from their homes at the height of the political skirmishes that accompanied and followed last years presidential
run-off between Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe.
The MDC says political abductions and harassment against its members are continuing 15 months after the formation of the unity government
in February.
The number has also increased since the formation of Zimbabwes coalition government last year when hordes of President Robert
Mugabes Zanu (PF) supporters, so-called war veterans and members of the army and police stepped up farm invasions.
Commercial farmers organisations say invaders have since raided at least 150 of the about 300 remaining white-owned commercial farms, a
development that has intensified doubts over whether the unity government will withstand attempts by Zanu (PF) hardliners to sabotage
it.
Tsvangirai has ordered the arrest and prosecution of the farm invaders but his word is largely ignored with farmers reporting continuing
invasions of their properties and disruption of farming activities.
The NRC report, which was prepared by the councils Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, said the number of IDPs has
been rising worldwide due to long-running internal conflicts.
Sudan had the largest number of IDPs, with more than 4.9 million people estimated to be internally displaced while Iraq and the
Democratic Republic of Congo closely follow with about 2.76 million and 1.9 million IDPs each.
Post published in: Politics