UN wants US$30 million for Zimbabwe homeless

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations appealed for nearly US$30 million ($44.64m) in humanitarian supplies for the most vulnerable people evicted from urban slums in Zimbabwe, according to a letter circulated on Tuesday.

The appeal was to have been launched in August but President Robert Mugabe initially rejected the funds, smarting from a critical United Nations (UN) report on July 2 that called his government's bulldozing of urban slums a disastrous and unjustified venture that affected 700,000 people.

The new appeal, called "Common Response Plan" was sent to UN ambassadors by Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, and is to provide some assistance to 300,000 people.

It asks for funds for shelter, food, health supplies, water, sanitation and medicines to combat Aids, which affects about a quarter of the adult population and kills some 3,000 Zimbabweans each week.

Mugabe has asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to visit and the UN chief is considering it, diplomats said, adding that there was still division among UN officials about whether he should make the trip. Egeland intends to visit Zimbabwe first, late this month or in October.

In his letter, Egeland said that while the government plans to provide 5,000 houses in the short term, tens of thousands of people still lack adequate shelter.

"Some evicted people continue to move around, searching for housing as well as work," Egeland wrote. "Others, such as families in Hatcliffe Extension near Harare, live on or near the ruins of their former homes."

He said UN officials in Zimbabwe were consulting with the government on how they could help provide temporary shelter.

While donors contribute relief aid to Zimbabwe, Mugabe's feud with Britain, a leading critic of his human rights record, has prevented development assistance on a larger scale from the European Union, the United States and elsewhere.

Egeland said the government's figures showed 92,460 dwellings had been demolished, directly affecting more than 133,000 households. The July 2 report from Anna Tibaijuka, the executive director of UN-Habitat, estimates 570,000 people had lost their homes and 98,000 their source of income.

- REUTERS