Mugabe defends demolition policy

HARARE - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has defended his government's two-month-old crackdown on illegal structures, saying it should be seen as reconstruction, not destruction.

Speaking on state television, he said the clean-up, which aid groups say has made an estimated 300,000 people homeless in poor townships, was aimed at regeneration.

"We are constructing brand new houses, mending those which require to be mended, where it is necessary to destroy some. But the thrust is a reconstruction one a positive thrust to rebuild things...that's how we should have done it," Mugabe said.

"But it was seen by others as a callous exercise. They said we were destroying homes and not shacks. We were destroying shacks and attachments to houses that were built to exploit the homeless ones."

A few weeks ago, bulldozers demolished structures in Harare's poor townships which the government said had been built without permission.

The government has said the campaign, called "Operation Restore Order", was intended to clean up cities and help end crime and illegal trading in foreign currency and scarce commodities. It has been extended to more affluent areas.

Mugabe said the government was moving swiftly to provide houses for those affected by the operation.

"Let's move as quickly as we can, so that people can see that in areas where land was subdivided into plots...houses have now arisen," said Mugabe.

"There will be joy on the part of those who did not have homes, joy on the part of those who had homes, which could not accommodate fully their families. Let's bring about that joy and we shall erase this image of a Zimbabwe that is in ruins."

The crackdown took place against the backdrop of a deepening economic crisis marked by acute shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is accused by opponents and critics of running down one of Africa's most promising economies through a series of unsound policies, including land seizures.

Mugabe denies the charges and says the economy is the victim of sabotage by opponents of his forcible redistribution of white-owned farms to blacks.

- REUTERS