IV 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 409 

Condemning the Government of Zimbabwe’s ‘‘Operation Murambatsvina’’ 

under which homes, businesses, religious structures, and other buildings 

and facilities were demolished in an effort characterized by the Government of Zimbabwe as an operation to ‘‘restore order’’ to the country. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 28, 2005 

Mr. LANTOS (for himself, Mr. HYDE, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. WYNN, Mr. WOLF, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. TANCREDO, Ms. WATSON, 

Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mr. 

WEXLER, Mr. FARR, Mr. MCNULTY, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. PITTS, 

and Mr. JACKSON of Illinois) submitted the following resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition 

to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently 

determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning the Government of Zimbabwe’s ‘‘Operation 

Murambatsvina’’ under which homes, businesses, religious structures, and other buildings and facilities were 

demolished in an effort characterized by the Government 

of Zimbabwe as an operation to ‘‘restore order’’ to the 

country. 

Whereas on May 19, 2005, the Government of Zimbabwe 

launched ‘‘Operation Murambatsvina’’, translated from 

the Shona language as ‘‘Operation Drive Out the Trash’’, 
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•HRES 409 IH 

in major cities and suburbs throughout Zimbabwe in an 

effort that it characterized as an operation to ‘‘restore 

order’’ to the country; 

Whereas hours after the Governor of the Reserve Bank of 

Zimbabwe called for an end to the parallel market, Operation Murambatsvina began in the city of Harare and 

subsequently in other urban areas, such as the city of 

Bulawayo, ostensibly to oust illegal vendors and eliminate 

illegal structures; 

Whereas Operation Murambatsvina was carried out as an indiscriminate demolition of the homes and livelihood of 

thousands of Zimbabwean citizens already suffering from 

a protracted economic and political crisis brought on by 

poor policy directives by the Government of Zimbabwe 

that forced masses of rural dwellers to urban areas of the 

country for survival; 

Whereas in some communities that were victimized by the 

forced demolitions, including Cheru Farm and Killarney 

Farm where more than 20,000 people lived, 

Zimbabweans had lived in residences for over 20 years 

and had well-functioning schools, health and HIV/AIDS 

clinics, orphanages for AIDS-affected children, viable 

businesses, places of worship, and other amenities; 

Whereas in 1993, the Government of Zimbabwe moved families from Cheru Farms to a new location, Porto Farm, 

which during Operation Murambatsvina was demolished 

by Zimbabwean Government forces; 

Whereas government security forces carried out Operation 

Murambatsvina, and in doing so, beat residents and 

forced them to destroy their own homes and places of 

business, though many residents provided permits from 
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•HRES 409 IH 

municipal authorities granting permission to build their 

structures; 

Whereas Operation Murambatsvina resulted in the demolition 

throughout the country of homes, businesses, and religious structures, including a mosque, and an AIDS orphanage and in the intimidation, harassment, and arrest 

of tens of thousands of people; 

Whereas Operation Murambatsvina cut off many AIDS patients from anti-retroviral medicines which will likely lead 

to a reversal of their health, resistance to the drugs, and 

a more virulent form of AIDS in Zimbabwe with potential for spreading throughout the region and worldwide; 

Whereas churches and private citizens sheltering the victims 

of Operation Murambatsvina were also intimidated, harassed, and arrested for their efforts to provide a safe 

haven for the victims during Zimbabwe’s harsh winter; 

Whereas armed soldiers and police forcibly removed hundreds 

of homeless people from churches in the city of Bulawayo 

and banned religious groups from providing humanitarian 

assistance to those seeking shelter at Hellensvale, a transit camp north of Zimbabwe’s second city, and where police arrested and detained religious leaders; 

Whereas a strongly worded statement issued by the Bulawayo 

clergy stated: ‘‘The removal of the poor, innocent, weak, 

voiceless and vulnerable members of society by riot police 

in the middle of the night was uncalled for and unnecessary. It is inhumane, brutal and insensitive, and in total 

disregard of human rights and dignity. These people are 

not criminals but bona fide citizens of this nation. It 

seems the crime they committed is that they are poor.’’; 
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Whereas the African Commission for Peoples’ and Human 

Rights dispatched an African Union envoy, Bahame Tom 

Nyanduga, Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Internally 

Displaced Persons, and Asylum Seekers in Africa to investigate the ongoing demolitions; 

Whereas the Government of Zimbabwe refused to allow the 

African Union envoy an opportunity to conduct his mission after being accused by the Government of Zimbabwe 

through its government-controlled media of ‘‘following the 

agenda of western countries’’; 

Whereas in response to the crisis, the Secretary-General of 

the United Nations dispatched a special envoy, Ms. Anna 

Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Deputy Secretary General, United 

Nations Human Settlements Program (UN–HABITAT), 

on a factfinding mission to assess the scope and impact 

of Operation Murambatsvina on the people of Zimbabwe 

and its consequences for the Zimbabwean Government; 

Whereas the mission of the United Nations special envoy was 

undertaken between June 26 and July 8, 2005, where 

she visited the cities of Harare, Headlands, Rusape, 

Mutare, Gweru, Bulawayo, Hwange, and Victoria Falls 

and met with victims of Operation Murambatsvina, heard 

personal testimony from victims, and met with members 

of the diplomatic community, the Government of 

Zimbabwe, and international nongovernmental organizations; 

Whereas the United Nations special envoy estimated that approximately 700,000 people in cities across the country 

have lost either their homes, their source of livelihood, or 

both, and that a total of 2.4 million people or 18 percent 

of the population was directly or indirectly affected by 

Operation Murambatsvina and that the operation would 
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•HRES 409 IH 

have considerable short-term and long-term impact on social and economic conditions in the country; 

Whereas 40,800 families directly affected by Operation 

Murambatsvina were headed by women, and 83,530 children under the age of four and 26,600 people age 60 and 

older were directly affected; 

Whereas President Robert Mugabe described this sudden and 

extensive operation against thousands of families and 

business persons in the dead of winter as necessary ‘‘to 

eliminate hideouts of crime and grime’’; 

Whereas the United Nations special envoy is quoted as saying 

‘‘the poor are not criminals . . . [t]hey work hard to obtain the little which they have and they should not thus 

be treated like criminals’’; 

Whereas the United Nations special envoy assessed the negative impact of Operation Murambatsvina on shelter, 

water and sanitation, food and nutrition, basic health 

services, HIV/AIDS, education, women and girls, refugees and other vulnerable groups; 

Whereas the special envoy concluded that Operation 

Murambatsvina ‘‘has rendered people homeless and economically destitute on an unprecedented scale; most of 

the victims were already among the most economically 

disadvantaged groups in society; and they have now been 

pushed deeper into poverty and have become even more 

vulnerable; and the scale of suffering is immense, particularly among widows, single mothers, children, orphans, 

the elderly and the disabled persons’’; 

Whereas the rise of urbanization and the informal sector in 

Zimbabwe has been the direct result of failed economic 

policies, a bitterly disputed fast track land reform pro-
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•HRES 409 IH 

gram, unplanned cash handouts to appease war veterans, 

the costly military intervention in Congo, and persistent 

drought; 

Whereas before Operation Murambatsvina, unemployment in 

Zimbabwe was between 70 and 80 percent, the HIV/ 

AIDS prevalence rate was 24 percent, and the inflation 

rate was 164.4 percent (but was as high as 522.8 percent), and currently Zimbabwe has the world’s fastest 

shrinking economy, there is an ongoing fuel crisis in the 

country, and the Zimbabwean economy had contracted 7 

percent; and 

Whereas the staggering suffering brought on by Operation 

Murambatsvina has been added to the already large-scale 

humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That— 

2 (1) it is the sense of the House of Representa3 tives that— 

4 (A) through Operation Murambatsvina, the 

5 Government of Zimbabwe has created a human6 itarian disaster that has compounded the al7 ready existing humanitarian food and economic 

8 crises in the country, and the Government of 

9 Zimbabwe has insufficient resources to address 

10 such crises; 

11 (B) the Government of Zimbabwe has a 

12 duty to protect the economic, social, and polit13 ical rights of its citizens as guaranteed by the 
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1 Constitution of Zimbabwe and the African 

2 Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; and 

3 (C) the Government of Zimbabwe also is 

4 subject to the International Covenant on Eco5 nomic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which 

6 Zimbabwe is a party, which states in part that 

7 ‘‘forced evictions are prima facie incompatible 

8 with the provisions of the Covenant and can 

9 only be carried out under specific cir10 cumstances’’; and 

11 (2) the House of Representatives— 

12 (A) condemns Operation Murambatsvina 

13 as a major humanitarian catastrophe caused by 

14 the Government of Zimbabwe’s callousness to15 ward its own people, disregard for the rule of 

16 law, and lack of planning to move families and 

17 businesses to more desirable locations; 

18 (B) calls on the United Nations, the Afri19 can Commission for Peoples’ and Human 

20 Rights, and the African Union to continue ef21 forts to investigate the impact of the 

22 demolitions of housing structures and premises 

23 from which informal businesses operated and to 

24 provide the international community with a via25 ble strategy to address the problems; 
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1 (C) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe 

2 to allow international humanitarian organiza3 tions access to those affected by the operation 

4 who are in need of food, medicine, shelter, sani5 tation, and water; 

6 (D) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe 

7 to hold accountable those responsible for this 

8 egregious injury to the Zimbabwean people, 

9 both the decisionmakers of the operation and 

10 those who carried out the operation; 

11 (E) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe 

12 to immediately and aggressively implement poli13 tics to promote the private sector and create 

14 jobs and build housing to accommodate those 

15 displaced by the operation; 

16 (F) calls on the United Nations and the 

17 international community to stand by the people 

18 of Zimbabwe who have been victimized by their 

19 government in this operation and to help them 

20 with relief and reconstruction of their lives; and 

21 (G) calls on the President of the United 

22 States to instruct the United States Executive 

23 Director to the International Monetary Fund 

24 (IMF) to use the voice, vote, and influence of 

25 the United States to support the IMF review of 
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1 Zimbabwe’s membership in that institution cur2 rently underway, and to give serious consider3 ation to further action at the IMF should the 

4 Government of Zimbabwe continue to pursue 

5 destructive economic policies, fail to make pay6 ments on its arrears, or block immediate emer7 gency humanitarian assistance from the inter8 national community through the World Food 

9 Program and other international humanitarian 

10 agencies. 

Æ