Toddlers crushed in Zim blitz
23/06/2005 14:47  - (SA)  

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Harare - Two toddlers were crushed to death when their homes were demolished during a government campaign to get rid of shacks and other illegal buildings that has left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans homeless, a state newspaper reported on Thursday.

Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena issued a statement following the deaths asking police and others taking part in Operation Murambatsvina, meaning "Get rid of trash", to be careful when demolishing structures.

"The call comes after two children died after they were crushed by walls and rubble during demolitions of illegal structures," said The Herald newspaper.

One-and-half-year-old Terence Munyaka, the son of a police officer, died on Sunday from head injuries sustained when the walls of his house came crashing down in the town of Chitungwiza, outside Harare.

Charmaine Nyika, 2, died on June 8 after a wall that had been partially razed collapsed on her in Harare's working class suburb of Tafara.

"We would like to urge those demolishing illegal structures to ensure the safety of everyone," Bvudzijena said.

For more than a month, bands of armed police have used excavators, bulldozers and sledgehammers to demolish and at times torch backyard shacks and shop stalls across Zimbabwe.

The exercise has left between 200 000 and 1.5 million people homeless according to the United Nations (UN) and the opposition respectively.

Operation Murambatsvina has also left hundreds of thousands of traders without jobs and incomes when the crackdown targeted market stalls and shops.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week tasked Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian economist and the executive director of the Nairobi-based UN Habitat programme, to visit Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian impact of the campaign the government has described as a crackdown on crime.

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