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III. Background

Operation Murambatsvina

On May 19, 2005, the government of Zimbabwe launched Operation Murambatsvina (Clear the Filth)1, a campaign of forcible evictions and demolitions in urban areas throughout Zimbabwe. With little or no warning, often with great brutality and in complete contravention of national and international standards, tens of thousands of houses, and thousands of informal business structures were destroyed without regard for the rights or welfare of the evictees.2

Zimbabwean authorities claimed that the destruction of homes and other properties was part of a long-term plan to clean up the urban areas, restore order, rid the cities of criminal elements, and restore dignity to the people.3 However, there were many alternative analyses of Operation Murambatsvina, several of which alleged that the operation was part of the government's efforts to debilitate the urban poor, force them to move to rural areas, and prevent mass uprisings against the deteriorating political and economic conditions in high density urban areas.4

The humanitarian consequences of this man-made disaster were catastrophic. There are few, if any precedents of a government forcibly and brutally displacing so many of its own citizens in peacetime. According to the United Nations estimates, 700,000 people—nearly 6 percent of the total population—have lost their homes, livelihood, or both as the result of the evictions, while 2.4 million people—some 18 percent of the population—have been either directly or indirectly affected by Operation Murambatsvina.5 The operation took a particularly heavy toll on vulnerable groups—widows, orphans, female- and children-headed household, elderly and people living with HIV/AIDS.6

“Revai R.” and her family had to assemble this shelter from pieces of metal and wood in Harare,
after their brick house was destroyed during Operation Murabatsvina.
© 2005 Human Rights Watch

The United Nations Special Envoy, Anna Tibaijuka, deployed to Zimbabwe by the U.N. Secretary General in June 2005 to access the scope and impact of Operation Murambatsvina, reported 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.”7

Operation Murambatsvina also entailed large-scale human rights violations. Zimbabwean authorities arbitrarily forced hundreds of thousands of people to destroy or cede their property without due notice, process or compensation; they restricted their freedom of movement by confining them to holding camps, and forcibly displaced many of the evictees to the rural areas where they had little or no access to basic services and means of economic support.. The Zimbabwean government also took no measures to investigate allegations of abuses during the operation and to provide adequate remedies to those whose rights had been violated.8

The humanitarian and human rights crisis precipitated by Operation Murambatsvina has exacerbated Zimbabwe’s socio-economic situation which has been rapidly deteriorating over recent years. In September 2005, inflation reached 359.8 percent per annum and unemployment was at 80 percent.9 An estimated 2.9 million people were in need of food aid by the end of September 2005. Although the rate of HIV infections has reportedly declined by 3 percent (from 24.6 percent to 21.3 percent between 2002 and 2004) more than 20 percent of adults—1.6 million people nationwide—are infected with HIV/AIDS10

Internal displacement in Zimbabwe

The movement of populations in Zimbabwe has been widespread in the past few years.  In 2004, a report by Global IDP Project of the Norwegian Refugee Council noted that “population movements [in Zimbabwe] have become an increasingly visible and common reality against a backdrop of political violence and a critical humanitarian situation.”11 

Between 1999 and 2004, large numbers of people were forced to move from their places of residence due to an escalation in political violence and state-sponsored human rights violations throughout the country.12 At the end of 2003, the U.S. Committee for Refugees estimated that more than 100,000 people were internally displaced in Zimbabwe.13

Some of the violence that led to internal displacement was to a large extent linked to the government’s “fast track” land reform program. The land reform program and resultant occupation of commercial farms led to a growing population of displaced farm workers.14 In addition, large numbers of political activists have been displaced when during election periods, ruling party supporters in the rural areas targeted and assaulted opposition activists.15 

Because of the political nature of the land reform program, the government of Zimbabwe denied that there was a problem of internal displacement in the country and restricted humanitarian assistance for former farm workers.16 The Global IDP project reported that a draft U.N. IDP strategy for Zimbabwe could not be finalized because it was never approved by the government and a revised U.N. Consolidated Appeals Process for Zimbabwe (April 2004) made no direct reference to IDPs.17

Protection and assistance for the displaced was therefore limited and U.N. agencies found it particularly difficult to carry out humanitarian operations in the highly polarized political environment.18 A U.N. report on the IDP situation in Zimbabwe in 2002, concluded:

The physical and/or economic displacement of farm workers, together with the displacement resulting from political violence…has created a serious problem of internally displaced population in the country. Response to this dilemma has been frustrated by the Government of Zimbabwe’s reluctance to admit that there is a crisis and the belated mobilization of the international community in addressing the needs of the IDPs.19

During an assessment mission in June 2004, Refugees International reported that they had found displaced populations effectively abandoned due to Zimbabwean government obstruction of assistance efforts by international agencies and local nongovernmental organizations.20

In the context of egregious government obstruction of programs for IDPs, Operation Murambatsvina brought the problem of internal displacement in Zimbabwe to a critical level, having caused hundreds of thousands of people to join the ranks of the country’s “abandoned” IDPs.  

“Paul P.” standing in front of his makeshift shelter in Harare.  © 2005 Human Rights Watch



[1] The official government translation for “Operation Murambatsvina” is “Operation Restore Order”, however the word “Murambatsvina” literally means “clear the filth or dirt” in the Shona language.

[2] Although the government claimed that the demolished structures were “illegal,” Human Rights Watch found that many legal housing and business structures were also destroyed during the evictions campaign. See Human Rights Watch, “Clear the Filth: Mass Evictions and Demolitions in Zimbabwe”, A Human Rights Watch Background Briefing, September 11, 2005.

[3] See e.g., Briefing by Minister Counsellor P. Zhou of the Zimbabwe High Commission, Pretoria,  July 7, 2005; George Charamba, Zimbabwe's Secretary of Information, "Zimbabwe: Operation Restore Order", New Africa, No. 442, July 2005.

[4] Human Rights Watch, “Clear the Filth”; see also U.N. Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, “Report of the Fact-finding missions to assess the scope and impact of Operation Murambatsvina,” July 22, 2005; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, “Order out of chaos or chaos out of order? A preliminary report on Operation Murambatsvina,” June 2005; International Crisis Group Report, “Zimbabwe’s Operation Murambatsvina: The tipping point?”, August 17, 2005.

[5] U.N. Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, Mrs. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, “Report of the Fact-Finding Missions to Zimbabwe to Assess the Scope and Impact of Operation Murambatsvina”, July 22, 2005 [online], http://www.unhabitat.org/documents/ZimbabweReport.pdf (retrieved November 22, 2005).

[6] Human Rights Watch “Clear the Filth”.

[7] United Nations Human Settlements Program (U.N. HABITAT), “Report of the Fact-Finding Missions to Zimbabwe“.

[8] For detailed analysis of these and other human rights violations in the course of the Operation Murambatsvina, see Human Rights Watch, “Clear the Filth”.

[9] “Zimbabwe Inflation Soars to 359.8 percent,” The Standard, October 11, 2005, citing the Central Statistical Office.

[10] “HIV Rates Decline in Zimbabwe,” UNAIDS press statement, October 10, 2005. While reporting the decline in HIV rates, UNAIDS stressed that the “evidence of declining rates is no reason for complacency” and that “HIV prevalence rates in Zimbabwe are still among the highest in the world.” The organization further warned that “infection rates could start rising again if underlying vulnerabilities, which contribute to unsafe sexual behavior and fuel the epidemic, are not sufficiently addressed. Such vulnerabilities include gender inequality, poverty and population mobility.”

[11] Global IDP Project, “Profile of Internal Displacement: Zimbabwe,” September 7, 2004. Norwegian Refugee Council is the organization working for the assistance and protection of the internally displaced populations worldwide.

[12] See reports on political violence during this period including: Human Rights Watch, “Under a Shadow: Civil and Political Rights in Zimbabwe”, A Human Rights Watch Background Briefing, June 9 2003;  Amnesty International, “Zimbabwe: Toll of impunity,” June 25, 2002,  AI Index : AFR 46/034/2002, June 25, 2002; and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum monthly political violence reports  [online] http://www.hrforumzim.com/frames/inside_frame_monthly.htm (retrieved November 22, 2005). 

[13] U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, “World Refugee Survey, Zimbabwe Country Report,” 2003.

[14] For a detailed discussion of Zimbabwe’s land reform and its’ consequences, see Human Rights Watch, “Fast-track Land Reform in Zimbabwe”, A Human Rights Watch Report, vol. 13, no. 1(A), March 2002; IDP Unit, U.N. Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) “The IDP Situation in Zimbabwe: Current trends and a strategy for the U.N. System”, May 27, 2002 [online], http://www.reliefweb.int/idp/docs/reports/Zimbaberep.pdf (retrieved November 22, 2005).

[15] For more details on incidents of political violence in the rural areas during this period see Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Monthly Political Violence Reports.

[16] Refugees International, “An Analysis of Displaced Farm Workers in Zimbabwe”, August 13, 2004.

[17] Global IDP Project, “Profile of Internal Displacement: Zimbabwe”, September 7, 2004.

[18] Ibid.

[19] IDP Unit, OCHA “The IDP Situation in Zimbabwe”.

[20]  Refugees International, “An Analysis of Displaced Farm Workers in Zimbabwe”.


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