A number of subsequent reports and statements have strongly corroborated what we said in our previous report. The UN Report The foremost report is the exhaustive United Nations report. This is a damning indictment of Operation Murambatsvina, an operation that the report refers to as ―a disastrous venture‖. It says that the Operation was carried out in ―an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering and, in repeated cases, with disregard to several provisions of national and international legal frameworks.‖ It says further that the Operation was conducted with little or no warning and involved the ―wanton destruction of homes, business premises and vending sites‖. The report estimates that some 700 000 people lost their homes or jobs and that a further 2.4 million people have been affected by the countrywide campaign and has precipitated ―a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions‖. The Secretary-General also declared the Operation to be ―a catastrophic injustice‖ and has endorsed the report of his Special Envoy. One important aspect of the UN report is the trenchant criticism of the forced relocation of urban people to rural areas. As pointed out in the previous Forum report, it is completely unacceptable to force people who live or work in the urban centres, and who want to continue to stay there, to move to the rural areas. People should have the freedom to decide where they live and work, and no one has the right to compel them to relocate to places that they do not wish to go. In many rural areas, there is no work available, so those relocated there will be left destitute. Many urban dwellers of foreign origin have no right of abode in the rural areas. In this regard the UN Special Envoy says at p.63 of her report 3 “The Government‘s policy stating that all Zimbabweans have a rural home, and that all those who have been evicted should return to their rural homes, implies a lack of freedom to choose one‘s own residence. This has particularly serious implications for those Zimbabweans of foreign origin who have no rural home. The mission visited Caledonia Camp, which was set up by the Government. The camp manager confirmed that the residents were waiting to be transported back to villages.‖ Speaking in Bulawayo during her visit to that city, the UN Special Envoy told Government officials that demolishing slums to force the poor back to the countryside was not a solution to the country‘s housing problems. She said that rural repatriation does not work, as, all around the world, people want to come and work in urban centers, and there was no way in which they can be forced to live in the countryside. 4 Additionally, the Special Envoy pointed out that, prior to Operation Murambatsvina, Zimbabwe was not regarded as country in which slums were a problem. According to UN-HABITAT, the percentage of Zimbabweans living in slum-conditions was only 3.4% of the urban population, a figure much lower than even many industrialised countries . 5