UN spokesman comments on Mugabe’s eviction campaign

Miloon Kothari, a United Nations (UN) housing expert, said most of those displaced by President Robert Mugabe's May 2005 eviction campaign remained homeless, in resettlement camps or were living without food, safe water or sanitation. "It is as bad as it can get," he said in Geneva. He deplored what he called a "shocking" lack of pressure on Zimbabwe by the international community. The Mugabe government used police and bulldozers to demolish street stalls and residences in urban shantytowns in its "Operation Restore Order" eviction campaign, during which 700 000 people lost homes or businesses. It was reported recently that Mugabe's ruling party reacted angrily to a resolution passed by African lawmakers to send a delegation to probe human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. President Mbeki of South Africa, who was mandated in May 2007 by the African Union (AU) to help Zimbabwe out of its economic and social crises, said he had no information that there was a problem regarding the mission.