Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government has forced up to 20 000 villagers displaced by floods in southern Zimbabwe to accept resettlement packages that leave them “utterly destitute”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Tuesday.
“The Zimbabwean government has stopped at nothing to coerce 20,000 flood victims to accept a resettlement package that provides labour for a government project, but leaves the flood victims utterly destitute,” said Dewa Mavhinga, a senior researcher at HRW and the author of the report.
The New York-based global watchdog said the Zimbabwe government had used force and coercion to move the villagers out of a temporary camp in Chingwizi, where they had been staying since February 2014.
Flooding in the Tokwe Mukorsi dam basin has submerged homes and crops in the area.
The 57-page report titled 'Homeless, Landless and Destitute: The Plight of Zimbabwe's Tokwe-Mukorsi Flood Victims' says the government made no effort to quickly reduce water levels in the dam in Zimbabwe's Masvingo province, a move that might have prevented the floods.
In August, villagers living at Chingwizi staged protests against their removal to Nuanetsi Ranch, where sugar cane is grown for a state-run ethanol project. Two police vehicles were torched, leading to a number of arrests. The camp was then closed down.
HRW said the villagers had not received food aid since September.
“In effect, the flood victims have been internally displaced and the government of Zimbabwe is failing to fulfil its obligation to assist and protect IDPs (internally displaced persons) in the country,” the report says.
Four villagers accused of leading last year's camp protests were last month sentenced to five years in jail each.
Sapa