H. Res. 409

In the House of Representatives, U.S., 

December 16, 2005.

Whereas on May 19, 2005, the Government of Zimbabwe 

launched ‘‘Operation Murambatsvina’’, translated from 

the Shona language as ‘‘Operation Drive Out the Trash’’, 

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 
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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 

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 tran-
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sit 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.’’; 

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 the decision to block access to the African Union 

envoy is representative of a larger pattern of behavior, 

whereby the Government of Zimbabwe uses violence, intimidation, and demagoguery to subjugate its people, relies on scapegoats to justify the economic, political, and 

social crises in Zimbabwe, and detains and slanders 

United States diplomats who challenge the ruinous policies of that government; 

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 
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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 

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 ob-
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tain 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 at the time of independence, President Robert 

Mugabe was hailed as a liberator and Zimbabwe showed 

bright prospects for democracy, economic development, 

domestic reconciliation, and prosperity; 

Whereas President Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party in recent years have turned away from the promises of liberation and become a party that uses state power to deny 

the people of Zimbabwe the freedoms and prosperity for 

which they fought and deserve; 

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 program, unplanned cash handouts to appease war veterans, 

the costly military intervention in Congo, and persistent 

drought; 
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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

Resolved, That—

(1) it is the sense of the House of Representatives 

that—

(A) through Operation Murambatsvina, the 

Government of Zimbabwe has created a humanitarian disaster that has compounded the already existing humanitarian food and economic crises in the 

country, and the Government of Zimbabwe has insufficient resources to address such crises; 

(B) the Government of Zimbabwe has a duty 

to protect the economic, social, and political rights 

of its citizens as guaranteed by the Constitution of 

Zimbabwe and the African Charter on Human and 

Peoples’ Rights; and 

(C) the Government of Zimbabwe also is subject to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Zimbabwe is a 
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party, which states in part that ‘‘forced evictions 

are prima facie incompatible with the provisions of 

the Covenant and can only be carried out under 

specific circumstances’’; and 

(2) the House of Representatives—

(A) condemns Operation Murambatsvina as a 

major humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Government of Zimbabwe’s callousness toward its own 

people, disregard for the rule of law, and lack of 

planning to move families and businesses to more 

desirable locations; 

(B) calls on the United Nations, the African 

Commission for Peoples’ and Human Rights, and 

the African Union to continue efforts to investigate 

the impact of the demolitions of housing structures 

and premises from which informal businesses operated and to provide the international community 

with a viable strategy to address the problems; 

(C) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to 

allow international humanitarian organizations access to those affected by the operation who are in 

need of food, medicine, shelter, sanitation, and 

water; 

(D) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to 

hold accountable those responsible for this egregious 
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injury to the Zimbabwean people, both the decisionmakers of the operation and those who carried out 

the operation; 

(E) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to 

immediately and aggressively implement policies to 

promote the private sector and create jobs and build 

housing to accommodate those displaced by the operation; 

(F) calls on the United Nations and the international community to stand by the people of 

Zimbabwe who have been victimized by their government in this operation and to help them with relief and reconstruction of their lives; 

(G) calls on the Secretary of the Treasury to 

instruct the United States Executive Director at the 

International Monetary Fund (IMF) to use the 

voice, vote, and influence of the United States to 

continue to advocate for further action at the IMF 

should the Government of Zimbabwe continue to 

fail to meet its obligations to the IMF; 

(H) condemns President Mugabe’s harassment 

of the United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, including by threatening the Ambassador’s expulsion 

from the country and asserting that he could ‘‘go 

to Hell’’; and 
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(I) calls on President Mugabe to recognize that 

absent meaningful corrective actions on his part, 

President Mugabe’s legacy will be defined by his responsibility for the ruinous policies and draconian 

laws that brought untold suffering of his people and 

the near collapse of Zimbabwe as a nation. 

Attest:

Clerk.