1. Shelter for the displaced: United Nations and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Many of the worst fears of the government driven OGHK housing programme have been realised. The scheme has failed to deliver; it has been confirmed to be no more than a hasty cover up by government once it realised that the demolitions had drawn the ire of the international community. Many of the few houses built have become, as predicted, part of the ZANU PF patronage system. However, it is alarming to note that no other group in Zimbabwe, including the United Nations and other international donor agencies, have fared any better in providing relief to IDPs. When the UN report was released in July last year, with excellent recommendations and offers of support to the displaced, Zimbabweans were full of hope that by now, one year on, much would have been done to alleviate the suffering of those left destitute by the demolitions. Yet interviews with agencies in Harare confirm that in the last year, only eight hundred temporary shelters have been provided by the international community via their main delivery agency, IOM.108 These shelters, with white canvas sides, tin roofs and some with concrete slabs, were built very recently by IOM for some of the displaced in Hopley and Hatcliffe in the Harare area. Effectively, in the entire of the four provinces on which this report is focused, not one single dwelling has been provided for a single displaced family! This is shocking.109 Reasons for international inaction The UN cannot unilaterally insist on any provision of humanitarian support in any nation: support has to be part of bilateral agreements with the government of the recipient nation. The last year has seen a prolonged and difficult stand off between the Zimbabwean government and the international community in terms of what should be done about the displaced. This is not a new stand off – the previous report by ourselves discussed in some detail the background to the government’s reluctance to accept donor aid, whether for food or for anything else: this is linked to their resentment of international criticism of their human rights record, international targeted sanctions against the Zimbabwean leadership, and their propaganda position that the British and USA in particular have an agenda of “recolonisation”, and that aid is a means of promoting this. The government has publicly never admitted that OM was a disaster of its own engineering and that those behind it have committed criminal offences for which they should be prosecuted. To continue to deny the scale of the humanitarian crisis on the one hand, and to allow the construction of thousands of temporary dwellings on the other, would be clearly contradictory. 108 Much of the information in this section of the report comes from discussions with IOM and with personnel from the OCHA office of the UN in Harare, in July 2006. 109 The churches in Matabeleland did try and provide thatch and doors for a few score of families forcibly dumped in rural areas by police last year, so that they could build their own homes, and the churches in Manicaland have provided basic support to 13, 000 displaced, but this can hardly be equated with supplying housing. The UN has, through the WFP, IOM and other channels, provided food and blankets to the displaced, reaching around 25,000 families in this way. While this has been vital support, decent shelter is also vital. IOM has stated its intention to build temporary structures in Victoria Falls shortly, but so far this has not been done. 68