ZIMBABWE / SHANTY DWELLINGS

In Zimbabwe, bulldozers are hard at work.

Here in Kambuzuma, west of Harare, houses and livelihoods are being pulled apart as part of a government policy known as operation Murambatsvina, or "clean up the filth".

Tens of thousands of shanty dwellings have been torn down and hundreds of thousands made homeless since the operation was launched in ??? provoking serious humanitarian concern in a country where an estimated 4.5 million people are already dependant on food aid.

Eunice Gatagata leaves in Hatcliffe with her husband and children. After the authorities destroyed their two-room wood cabin at the end of May they were sent to this holding camp at Caledonia where they spent three anguished weeks.

Eunice: "We cried all the time (at Caledonia), tears poured down our cheeks all the time. We had no idea where to go, especially people like I who have no relatives here in Harare and have lost all parents".

They have since been returned to Hatcliffe by the government where they now live in the open huddled amongst their few remaining belongings.

Eunice now sells vegetables on the roadside. Two of her children were attending the local Zambuko primary school, but the school has since closed down after attendance fell to just 5 percent of normal levels as a direct consequence of the clean up operation and the displacement of the people who used to call this place home.

Shadreck Tondori is Eunice's neighbour and the father of four. His youngest child is a one month old baby whom he has nicknamed Tsunami because she was born at the height of the clean-up operation and because the trail of destruction that it has left behind reminds him of the television images he saw when the Tsunami struck south-eats Asia last December.

Shadreck: "We were not even given any notice, we just saw them arriving. It was not a clean up it was some sort of genocide"

"I lost nearly everything, with the expectation of a few iron rods that didn't burn"

But despite widespread international condemnation of the policy, including a recent report from the United Nations that called the operation a breach of national and international human rights law, the destructions continue.

These houses in the Harare township of Epworth are next on the list. The black Xs on the walls mean that these houses will be destroyed. These residents have at least been forewarned and have removed their roofs, windows and doors in order to save them from destruction.

The government says that it will build new houses for affected populations but the speed with which they are coming down far outstrips the pace at which they are being rebuilt.

Chen Chimutengwende, is Zimbabwe's Acting Minister of Information.

"The objective was to sort out the mess that had been created by too many illegal structures which were being built everywhere without permission, without planning and it was unsightly.

It was filthy - like all squatters - squatter shacks when they are built they are messy to look at and it was also found that these places were hives of many illegal activities. So they just had to be demolished - no country would allow that kind of thing to exist."

But government critics doubt this motive. Arnold Tsunga, is the Executive Director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

"The initial targets were urban areas and peri-urban areas which are generally known as strongholds for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The fact that the government has failed to break the spine of the MDC in terms of their stronghold in urban areas this is also seen as punishment that has been meted post-election on the urban electorate for not having supported ZANU ( the ruling party)"