Zimbabwe: No justice for the victims of forced evictions Victims of Operation Murambatsvina living as IDPs at Cowdray Park, April 2006. © AI 2006 15 Cowdray Park Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle houses in April 2006 (unfinished). © AI 2006 IDPs at Cowdray Park In April 2006 Amnesty International visited Cowdray Park and met a family group of 28 adults and children who had been living there as IDPs for eight months (see photo, above left). The family, who are of Malawian origin, were forcibly evicted from the long-established informal settlement of Killarney during Operation Murambatsvina. They were first placed in a transit camp and then taken by police and left on a piece of scrubland beside Cowdray Park, where they were given some Red Cross tents from the transit camp. The family had originally been told they would be given a house. Although 700 houses have been built just beside their camp, they have not been allocated one of these houses (see photo, above right). During the building of the Cowdray Park houses, construction workers came and took some of their roofing sheets to use on the scheme! When Amnesty International interviewed them in April 2006 the family had been told that they would not be given a house and they were to be moved to another location. They did not know when, or where. “We were told by [a government official] that we would not benefit from the new housing because we could not afford it. We said we could pay but then they asked for bank account details and pay slips, and we do not have these things. We are decent people. We never used to beg or scrape for food. We used to look after ourselves, not survive on handouts. Amnesty should tell our story because we have been told by [the official] that we are hidden people.” As well as houses, several hundred stands have reportedly been allocated at Cowdray Park. The procedure for allocation of stands was different to that used for allocating housing. According to some beneficiaries the allocation process for stands involved them going directly to an army office at Cowdray Park to apply for a stand, and notification of allocation was also done by this office. Amnesty International found that some community organisations had been offered stands for their members, many of whom were victims of Operation Murambatsvina. However, the potential for these victims to take up their stands and construct a home has been severely limited by a number of factors including the prohibitive cost, lack Amnesty International 8 September 2006 AI Index: AFR 46/005/2006