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Time for accountability
much needed cash from impoverished communities. For example, most victims of the
recent human rights violations from rural areas interviewed by Amnesty International
in August 2008 reported being forced to make contributions to feed “war veterans”
and ZANU-PF youths at ZANU-PF camps. Those who resisted were often threatened
with eviction from their land or other forms of violence by “war veterans”, local party
activists and traditional leaders.
Lost livelihoods
Government policies since 2000, particularly the violent land reform programme and
Operation Murambatsvina, significantly reduced the capacity of ordinary Zimbabweans
to access food, health and education.
Thousands of farm labourers lost their jobs and were not allocated plots under the
land reform programme and have no means to pay for their children’s education or
their health care. Many remain internally displaced (often referred to as “Mobile and
Vulnerable Population” by humanitarian organizations) and have been dependent on
humanitarian assistance since 2000.
Operation Murambatsvina destroyed many thriving small businesses that had grown in
response to the declining formal sector and had been a source of income for many low
income households. The informal sector had become the only source of livelihood for
Zimbabwe’s large population of unemployed people; Zimbabwe’s unemployment stood
at an all-time high of 80 per cent in August 2008, while official inflation jumped from
11 million per cent in June 2008 to 231 million per cent in July.
Amnesty International
AI Index: AFR 46/028/2008
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