Urban Renewal in Zimbabwe

Sad, sad, story- the link is here.

...Julius... explains that the police came on Monday and told them they were evicted and they would be back to burn their homes down. No reason was given. "We removed everything we have," he says, pointing to the plastic-covered pile where he had been sleeping. "We are scared and we can't afford to lose this."

Julius's family is one of the poorest in Zimbabwe's already poverty-stricken second city, the capital of Matabeleland and the heartland of opposition to President Robert Mugabe. Yesterday, as Mr Mugabe travelled in an open-topped Rolls-Royce to the state opening of Parliament, Julius became the latest victim of what the government, dominated by Mugabe's Shona tribe, is calling "operation clean-up", aimed allegedly at beautifying cities.

The mud huts of Julius's village lie on a disused plain, scattered among the dry husks of the failed maize crop, that has left them on the edge of starvation.

A church worker, who preferred not to be named, hands out small sacks of porridge to the gathering crowd. "This is devastating. What are you cleaning? Nothing, you are cleaning nothing," he says. "This is a punishment, these people who have nothing are being punished for voting against Mugabe."

Human rights activists, churches, unions and opposition groups have unanimously condemned the "clean-up" as a brutal crackdown on the urban poor to punish them for voting against the government in the 31 March elections. In a matter of days, the campaign has seen the destruction of street markets and the mass arrest of traders; the demolition of shanty towns and the collapse of the informal economy upon which millions of the country's poor rely.