[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 409 Engrossed in House (EH)]
H. Res. 409
In the House of Representatives, U.S.,
December 16, 2005.
Whereas on May 19, 2005, the Government of Zimbabwe launched ``Operation
Murambatsvina'', translated from the Shona language as ``Operation Drive
Out the Trash'', in major cities and suburbs throughout Zimbabwe in an
effort that it characterized as an operation to ``restore order'' to the
country;
Whereas hours after the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe called for an
end to the parallel market, Operation Murambatsvina began in the city of
Harare and subsequently in other urban areas, such as the city of
Bulawayo, ostensibly to oust illegal vendors and eliminate illegal
structures;
Whereas Operation Murambatsvina was carried out as an indiscriminate demolition
of the homes and livelihood of thousands of Zimbabwean citizens already
suffering from a protracted economic and political crisis brought on by
poor policy directives by the Government of Zimbabwe that forced masses
of rural dwellers to urban areas of the country for survival;
Whereas in some communities that were victimized by the forced demolitions,
including Cheru Farm and Killarney Farm where more than 20,000 people
lived, Zimbabweans had lived in residences for over 20 years and had
well-functioning schools, health and HIV/AIDS clinics, orphanages for
AIDS-affected children, viable businesses, places of worship, and other
amenities;
Whereas in 1993, the Government of Zimbabwe moved families from Cheru Farms to a
new location, Porto Farm, which during Operation Murambatsvina was
demolished by Zimbabwean Government forces;
Whereas government security forces carried out Operation Murambatsvina, and in
doing so, beat residents and forced them to destroy their own homes and
places of business, though many residents provided permits from
municipal authorities granting permission to build their structures;
Whereas Operation Murambatsvina resulted in the demolition throughout the
country of homes, businesses, and religious structures, including a
mosque, and an AIDS orphanage and in the intimidation, harassment, and
arrest of tens of thousands of people;
Whereas Operation Murambatsvina cut off many AIDS patients from anti-retroviral
medicines which will likely lead to a reversal of their health,
resistance to the drugs, and a more virulent form of AIDS in Zimbabwe
with potential for spreading throughout the region and worldwide;
Whereas churches and private citizens sheltering the victims of Operation
Murambatsvina were also intimidated, harassed, and arrested for their
efforts to provide a safe haven for the victims during Zimbabwe's harsh
winter;
Whereas armed soldiers and police forcibly removed hundreds of homeless people
from churches in the city of Bulawayo and banned religious groups from
providing humanitarian assistance to those seeking shelter at
Hellensvale, a transit camp north of Zimbabwe's second city, and where
police arrested and detained religious leaders;
Whereas a strongly worded statement issued by the Bulawayo clergy stated: ``The
removal of the poor, innocent, weak, voiceless and vulnerable members of
society by riot police in the middle of the night was uncalled for and
unnecessary. It is inhumane, brutal and insensitive, and in total
disregard of human rights and dignity. These people are not criminals
but bona fide citizens of this nation. It seems the crime they committed
is that they are poor.'';
Whereas the African Commission for Peoples' and Human Rights dispatched an
African Union envoy, Bahame Tom Nyanduga, Special Rapporteur on
Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons, and Asylum Seekers in Africa to
investigate the ongoing demolitions;
Whereas the Government of Zimbabwe refused to allow the African Union envoy an
opportunity to conduct his mission after being accused by the Government
of Zimbabwe through its government-controlled media of ``following the
agenda of western countries'';
Whereas the decision to block access to the African Union envoy is
representative of a larger pattern of behavior, whereby the Government
of Zimbabwe uses violence, intimidation, and demagoguery to subjugate
its people, relies on scapegoats to justify the economic, political, and
social crises in Zimbabwe, and detains and slanders United States
diplomats who challenge the ruinous policies of that government;
Whereas in response to the crisis, the Secretary-General of the United Nations
dispatched a special envoy, Ms. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Deputy
Secretary General, United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-
HABITAT), on a factfinding mission to assess the scope and impact of
Operation Murambatsvina on the people of Zimbabwe and its consequences
for the Zimbabwean Government;
Whereas the mission of the United Nations special envoy was undertaken between
June 26 and July 8, 2005, where she visited the cities of Harare,
Headlands, Rusape, Mutare, Gweru, Bulawayo, Hwange, and Victoria Falls
and met with victims of Operation Murambatsvina, heard personal
testimony from victims, and met with members of the diplomatic
community, the Government of Zimbabwe, and international nongovernmental
organizations;
Whereas the United Nations special envoy estimated that approximately 700,000
people in cities across the country have lost either their homes, their
source of livelihood, or both, and that a total of 2.4 million people or
18 percent of the population was directly or indirectly affected by
Operation Murambatsvina and that the operation would have considerable
short-term and long-term impact on social and economic conditions in the
country;
Whereas 40,800 families directly affected by Operation Murambatsvina were headed
by women, and 83,530 children under the age of four and 26,600 people
age 60 and older were directly affected;
Whereas President Robert Mugabe described this sudden and extensive operation
against thousands of families and business persons in the dead of winter
as necessary ``to eliminate hideouts of crime and grime'';
Whereas the United Nations special envoy is quoted as saying ``the poor are not
criminals . . . [t]hey work hard to obtain the little which they have
and they should not thus be treated like criminals'';
Whereas the United Nations special envoy assessed the negative impact of
Operation Murambatsvina on shelter, water and sanitation, food and
nutrition, basic health services, HIV/AIDS, education, women and girls,
refugees and other vulnerable groups;
Whereas the special envoy concluded that Operation Murambatsvina ``has rendered
people homeless and economically destitute on an unprecedented scale;
most of the victims were already among the most economically
disadvantaged groups in society; and they have now been pushed deeper
into poverty and have become even more vulnerable; and the scale of
suffering is immense, particularly among widows, single mothers,
children, orphans, the elderly and the disabled persons'';
Whereas at the time of independence, President Robert Mugabe was hailed as a
liberator and Zimbabwe showed bright prospects for democracy, economic
development, domestic reconciliation, and prosperity;
Whereas President Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party in recent years have turned away
from the promises of liberation and become a party that uses state power
to deny the people of Zimbabwe the freedoms and prosperity for which
they fought and deserve;
Whereas the rise of urbanization and the informal sector in Zimbabwe has been
the direct result of failed economic policies, a bitterly disputed fast
track land reform program, unplanned cash handouts to appease war
veterans, the costly military intervention in Congo, and persistent
drought;
Whereas before Operation Murambatsvina, unemployment in Zimbabwe was between 70
and 80 percent, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate was 24 percent, and the
inflation rate was 164.4 percent (but was as high as 522.8 percent), and
currently Zimbabwe has the world's fastest shrinking economy, there is
an ongoing fuel crisis in the country, and the Zimbabwean economy had
contracted 7 percent; and
Whereas the staggering suffering brought on by Operation Murambatsvina has been
added to the already large-scale humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
(A) through Operation Murambatsvina, the Government of
Zimbabwe has created a humanitarian disaster that has compounded
the already existing humanitarian food and economic crises in
the country, and the Government of Zimbabwe has insufficient
resources to address such crises;
(B) the Government of Zimbabwe has a duty to protect the
economic, social, and political rights of its citizens as
guaranteed by the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the African
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights; and
(C) the Government of Zimbabwe also is subject to the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
to which Zimbabwe is a party, which states in part that ``forced
evictions are prima facie incompatible with the provisions of
the Covenant and can only be carried out under specific
circumstances''; and
(2) the House of Representatives--
(A) condemns Operation Murambatsvina as a major humanitarian
catastrophe caused by the Government of Zimbabwe's callousness
toward its own people, disregard for the rule of law, and lack
of planning to move families and businesses to more desirable
locations;
(B) calls on the United Nations, the African Commission for
Peoples' and Human Rights, and the African Union to continue
efforts to investigate the impact of the demolitions of housing
structures and premises from which informal businesses operated
and to provide the international community with a viable
strategy to address the problems;
(C) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to allow
international humanitarian organizations access to those
affected by the operation who are in need of food, medicine,
shelter, sanitation, and water;
(D) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to hold accountable
those responsible for this egregious injury to the Zimbabwean
people, both the decisionmakers of the operation and those who
carried out the operation;
(E) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to immediately and
aggressively implement policies to promote the private sector
and create jobs and build housing to accommodate those displaced
by the operation;
(F) calls on the United Nations and the international
community to stand by the people of Zimbabwe who have been
victimized by their government in this operation and to help
them with relief and reconstruction of their lives;
(G) calls on the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the
United States Executive Director at the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United
States to continue to advocate for further action at the IMF
should the Government of Zimbabwe continue to fail to meet its
obligations to the IMF;
(H) condemns President Mugabe's harassment of the United
States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, including by threatening the
Ambassador's expulsion from the country and asserting that he
could ``go to Hell''; and
(I) calls on President Mugabe to recognize that absent
meaningful corrective actions on his part, President Mugabe's
legacy will be defined by his responsibility for the ruinous
policies and draconian laws that brought untold suffering of his
people and the near collapse of Zimbabwe as a nation.
Attest:
Clerk.