•HRES 409 EH 
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 per-
cent), 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 humani-
tarian disaster that has compounded the already ex-
isting humanitarian food and economic crises in the 
country, and the Government of Zimbabwe has in-
sufficient 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 sub-
ject to the International Covenant on Economic, So-
cial and Cultural Rights, to which Zimbabwe is a
•HRES 409 EH 
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 Gov-
ernment 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 oper-
ated 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 ac-
cess 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
•HRES 409 EH 
injury to the Zimbabwean people, both the decision-
makers 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 op-
eration; 
(F) calls on the United Nations and the inter-
national community to stand by the people of 
Zimbabwe who have been victimized by their gov-
ernment in this operation and to help them with re-
lief 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, in-
cluding by threatening the Ambassador’s expulsion 
from the country and asserting that he could ‘‘go 
to Hell’’; and
•HRES 409 EH 
(I) calls on President Mugabe to recognize that 
absent meaningful corrective actions on his part, 
President Mugabe’s legacy will be defined by his re-
sponsibility 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.