including five children under the age of one. Many relatives and eye-witnesses believe their deaths to be attributable to their exposure to the tear gas. 19 Relatives of the dead described the events of 2 September to Amnesty International in affidavits. Christine K. described the deaths of her daughter and five-month-old grandson: “[T]he police fired … tear gas canisters that landed in our yard thereby clouding the inside and outside of our huts with a pungent of choking smoke. Myself, my …daughter and grandson inhaled the smoke, … [my daughter] immediately collapsed. She complained to me that her chest was full of the smoke and [she] had difficulties in breathing…I dragged [my daughter] in the hut and from that time she never recovered until death. [My grandson] was taken to Parirenyatwa hospital...[and] was spitting blood until the time of his death... ”20 Midia C. the mother of a 32-year-old woman who died on 5 September stated: “[My daughter] was at [home] when one tear gas canister was fired by Norton police and landed where she was sleeping. It exploded and the smoke clouded her. A neighbour pulled her from the smoke but she was already unconscious. She started having respiratory problems until her death on 5 September. I am convinced she died of the tear gas as she was healthy before the incident of 2 September.”21 Jesca D. who was six months pregnant at the time of the tear gas incident, described in an affidavit how she inhaled tear gas and was then assaulted by a police officer. She miscarried the following day. Hundreds of other Porta Farm residents also reported suffering ill effects from the tear gas, including chest and stomach pains, nose bleeding and other health problems. Doctors who examined some of the Porta Farm residents told Amnesty International that they believed that those most seriously affected by the tear gas were particularly vulnerable due to pre-existing illnesses such as tuberculosis.22 Following the events of 2 September 2004 the police withdrew from Porta Farm and the residents began to re-build the homes that had been destroyed. On 20 September 2004 Harare City Council applied to the courts seeking to evict the Porta Farm residents. The court dismissed the application referring to the still valid 1995 order compelling Harare City Council to provide suitable alternative accommodation.23 In November 2004 the Minster of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing filed a supplementary affidavit in the High Court. 24 The Minister alleged he had complied with the High Court orders and provided a schedule of the farms and housing cooperatives where Porta Farm residents would be relocated on designated housing stands (plots of land allocated for building a house). However, in April 2006 members of the Porta Farm community, in the company of lawyer Alec Muchadehama, visited the farms and cooperatives and were unable to find any such plots Amnesty International press release, “Zimbabwe: Another death at Porta Farm - 11 people now dead following police misuse of tear gas”, AI Index: AFR 46/028/2004, 1 October 2004. 20 In the weeks that followed the attempted forced evictions at Porta Farm Amnesty International interviewed relatives of the deceased who agreed to provide affidavits to the organisation and gave permission for Amnesty International to name the deceased publicly. Quoted from the affidavit of Christine K., 22 September 2004 , Harare. See also: Amnesty International, “Zimbabwe: Another death at Porta Farm - 11 people now dead following police misuse of tear gas”, AI Index: AFR 46/028/2004, 1 October 2004. 21 Affidavit of Midia. C., 30 September 2004, Harare. 22 Amnesty International phone interviews and email communication with doctors and medical experts in Harare, London, September 2004. 23 HC 11041/04. 24 HC 10671/04. 19