UN envoy had ‘ very good’ talks with Mugabe

By Stella Mapenzauswa

HARARE (Reuters) – A U.N. special envoy said she had “verygood” discussions with President Robert Mugabe on Wednesdayabout Zimbabwe’s widely condemned urban crackdown that has leftan estimated 300,000 people homeless.

Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of housing agencyUN-HABITAT, has been in Zimbabwe since Sunday on a mission toassess the crackdown and after the meeting headed to Harare’soldest township of Mbare, one of the worst hit by theoperation.

“We had very good discussions, constructive discussion,”she told journalists after one-and-a-half hours of talks withMugabe. She offered no further details.

Western countries and organizations including Britain, theUnited States, the Commonwealth and the European Union havecriticized the operation, which has caused the deaths of atleast two children crushed in demolished houses.

Mugabe told journalists separately that he had told U.N.Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s envoy his government wanted toimplement the clean-up exercise before March 31 parliamentarypolls but had feared it would be misconstrued as an attempt todrive out opposition supporters.

“I briefed her about it all in terms of the background …that we had wanted to do this before the elections but then wefeared it would be said that we were preparing the way for ourown victory and affecting the position of the MDC adversely,”Mugabe said.

“But now after elections when the MDC has won (the urbanareas) we decided to undertake the operation. It has been onour books for a long time … she was quite receptive,” the81-year-old leader said.

The MDC accuses Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party of riggingthe parliamentary elections and has taken the ruling party tocourt challenging some of the results.

Mugabe’s government has defended the demolition operation,saying it is meant to root out black market trade in scarceforeign currency and basic food commodities — which hadthrived in shantytowns.

Tibaijuka, together with her team and local U.N. staffimmediately began a tour of some of the affected areas inHarare.

On Monday Mugabe’s government vowed to step up a newhousing program to benefit those left homeless, which aidagencies have pegged at over 300,000. Zimbabwe’s mainopposition says the figure is now over 1.5 million.