Zimbabweans destroy own buildings amid crackdown

HARARE - Suburban residents in Zimbabwe's capital have pulled down their own outbuildings after police warned a two-month-old crackdown on illegal structures would be extended to more affluent areas.

President Robert Mugabe's government has drawn criticism at home and abroad over the crackdown, which aid groups estimate has left an estimated 300,000 people homeless in poor townships.

On Tuesday, residents in the capital Harare's once-prosperous suburbs of Hatfield and Waterfalls knocked down cottages and home-based kiosks built over the past few years.

They had been erected as families sought to supplement meagre salaries with extra income from rentals and selling convenience commodities.

"We hear they (police) are coming so we thought it best to bring down our tuck-shop to minimise the damage to the rest of the house," said a middle-aged woman, as her teenaged son hammered at a little room attached to the main house.

Across the street, household furniture including beds, cupboards and kitchen equipment lay next to rubble left from what used to be a cottage next to a larger bungalow.

There was no sign of bulldozers that went to work in Harare's poor townships a few weeks ago to flatten structures the government said had been put up without permission.

Mugabe's government has said the operation was to clean up Zimbabwe's cities and flush out crime and illegal trading in foreign currency and other commodities in short supply.

The government has denied accusations that the campaign, called "Operation Restore Order", is targeted at opposition supporters who mostly live in poor urban areas.

A South African church group said on Monday victims of the township demolitions were living under cruel and inhumane conditions at a transit camp outside Harare and it urged its local counterparts to speak more forcefully on the drive.

A United Nations envoy who studied the demolitions over a two-week period is expected to present her findings to Secretary-General Kofi Annan in two weeks.

The Commonwealth, European Union, Britain, the United States and rights groups have all condemned the demolitions, in which at least five people have been killed and many more deprived of both their homes and livelihood.

- REUTERS