U.S. bishop condemns wave of demolitions in Zimbabwe

Published: 2005-06-27

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The international community should pressure Zimbabwe's government to stop a widely criticized wave of shantytown demolitions that has left hundreds of thousands homeless, said the head of the U.S. bishops' international policy committee. Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., also called on Zimbabwe to provide "shelter, food and full restitution of property and other losses" to the people displaced by the government's Operation Drive Out Trash. "We urge the government of Zimbabwe to facilitate the efforts of those organizations, including those sponsored by the church, to provide humanitarian and development assistance to the poor and defenseless," Bishop Ricard said in a June 24 statement released in Washington. Zimbabwe's government said the demolitions were carried out to eliminate illegal settlements that had contributed to a rise in crime in Zimbabwe's deteriorating cities, but Bishop Ricard said the reasons the government offered "cannot justify the cruel violence visited by the authorities on peaceful and innocent people."

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