UN hits housing for evicted Zimbabweans
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-07 09:14

The U.N. emergency relief coordinator said Tuesday that Zimbabwe's efforts to rehouse hundreds of thousands of people displaced in a massive slum-clearance drive have been inadequate.

A United Nations report has estimated at least 700,000 were left without work or shelter because of the demolitions that began in May �� a figure disputed by President Robert Mugabe's government �� and demanded that those responsible be punished.

"We stand by the report," U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said. "The eviction campaign was the worst possible thing at the worst possible moment. ... The important thing now is to look to the future. We have to help these people."

Mugabe's government, which said the demolitions were part of a much-needed urban renewal drive, has promised to rehouse "deserving" Zimbabweans. But Egeland said reconstruction was too slow and many people were left in the open after the start of seasonal rains in November.

"Some people had better houses before than the shelters now being made available to them," he added.

Egeland wraps up a three-day visit Wednesday aimed at assessing the humanitarian needs of Zimbabwe, also reeling from massive food shortages, up to 80 percent unemployment and an AIDS epidemic that is killing 3,000 people a week.

The agriculture-based economy has collapsed under the pressure of years of drought and the seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans.

Egeland has met with government officials, church leaders, aid workers and displaced people during his trip. He has also toured demolition sites, housing projects and a center for AIDS orphans.

"The humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is very serious," he told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Mugabe in the capital, Harare. "Millions of people are struggling with their backs against the wall to fend off hunger and HIV/AIDS. I hope we will have a more fruitful partnership with the government in 2006."

Strained relations between Zimbabwe and the United Nations eased last week when the government agreed to allow the World Food Program to help feed at least 3 million people after earlier denying critical shortages.

Zimbabwe has also agreed to allow the United Nations to help build new shelters for those displaced in the slum-clearance drive �� a move welcomed by Egeland.

"We are the shelter experts of the world," he said. "We should have been able to move in earlier."