By Novell Zwange – HARARE – The Amnesty International yesterday said that Zimbabwean authorities must halt the pending evictions of up to 20,000 people from an informal settlement on the outskirts of Harare for failure to pay prohibitively high lease renewal fees charged by the authorities. Most of the residents of Hatcliffe Extension were allocated plots of land for new homes after they were forcibly evicted by the authorities under the country’s 2005 mass forced evictions programme, Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Restore Order) which saw around hundrends of thousands of people lose their homes and/or their livelihoods. Operation Restore Order, was... Continue Reading
By Guyson Nanagayi – Lusaka – AFP- Zambian government has relocated more than 1 500 DRC refugees back to their country after the closure of a camp, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday. “A total of 1 555 Congolese refuges have been relocated from Mwange and Kala to Maheba in the Northwestern province,” UNHCR programme officer Robert Taban said in a statement. This is the final year of a voluntary repatriation programme launched in 2007 to encourage Congolese refugees in Zambia to return to the DRC. So far 40 000 of them have heeded the call according to... Continue Reading
By Elias Mhegera – DEFENDERS of human rights in Tanzania have rejected the tendency which ignores human rights violation in this country on the pretext of its peace and tranquility. Speaking during the opening of a one week workshop for human rights defenders in the New Africa Hotel in Dar es Salaam on Monday this week, the Executive Director of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Francis Kiwanga said that there many violation of human rights though in subtle forms. “We cannot ignore violation of human rights simply because they are not reported in the media, we at the... Continue Reading
By Novell Zwange – United States of America’s Congressional leaders Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, (R-FL) and Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requesting US action to secure the immediate release of Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, the outspoken Sahrawi police chief arrested by the Polisario Front last week as he tried to rejoin his wife and children in Algeria’s Tindouf refugee camps. The letter joins an outcry from international human rights advocacy groups criticizing the Polisario’s arrest of its own Chief Police Inspector for alleged “treason” and “espionage” simply for voicing his support of... Continue Reading
By Novell Zwange – HARARE – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that increasing violence in Zimbabwe during community meetings leading up to a constitutional referendum and new arrests of civil society activists highlight the lack of progress in ending human rights abuses and implementing urgently needed human rights reforms. “The national unity government began a series of community outreach meetings in June called the Constitutional Outreach Program to elicit popular views on a new constitution. The meetings have been marked by increasing violence and intimidation, mainly by supporters of Zimbabwe’s African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and war... Continue Reading
