Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the government of Zimbabwe: (1) has, through Operation Murambatsvina, created a humanitarian disaster that has compounded the country's humanitarian food and economic crises; (2) has a duty to protect its citizens' economic, social, and political rights; and (3) is subject to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with respect to forced evictions.
Condemns Operation Murambatsvina as a major humanitarian catastrophe caused by the government of Zimbabwe's callousness toward its own people, disregard for the rule of law, and lack of planning to move families and businesses to more desirable locations.
Calls on the United Nations, the African Commission for Peoples' and Human Rights, and the African Union to investigate the impact of the demolition of housing structures and premises from which informal businesses operated and to provide the international community with a strategy to address the problems.
Calls on the government of Zimbabwe with respect to Operation Murambatsvina to: (1) allow access to international humanitarian organizations; (2) hold accountable those responsible; and (3) implement policies to promote the private sector and create jobs and build housing.
Calls on the Secretary of the Treasury to use U.S. influence to continue to advocate for further action at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should the Government of Zimbabwe continue to fail to meet its obligations to the IMF.
Condemns President Mugabe's harassment of U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe. Calls upon him to recognize that absent corrective actions on his part his legacy will be defined by his ruinous policies and draconian laws that have brought untold suffering to his people and the near collapse of Zimbabwe as a nation.
[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 409 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 409
Condemning the Government of Zimbabwe's ``Operation Murambatsvina''
under which homes, businesses, religious structures, and other
buildings and facilities were demolished in an effort characterized by
the Government of Zimbabwe as an operation to ``restore order'' to the
country.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 28, 2005
Mr. Lantos (for himself, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Berman, Mr. Smith of New Jersey,
Mr. Wynn, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Tancredo, Ms. Watson, Mr. Burton of
Indiana, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Farr, Mr.
McNulty, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Pitts, and Mr. Jackson of Illinois)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee on
Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Condemning the Government of Zimbabwe's ``Operation Murambatsvina''
under which homes, businesses, religious structures, and other
buildings and facilities were demolished in an effort characterized by
the Government of Zimbabwe as an operation to ``restore order'' to the
country.
Whereas on May 19, 2005, the Government of Zimbabwe launched ``Operation
Murambatsvina'', translated from the Shona language as ``Operation Drive
Out the Trash'', in major cities and suburbs throughout Zimbabwe in an
effort that it characterized as an operation to ``restore order'' to the
country;
Whereas hours after the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe called for an
end to the parallel market, Operation Murambatsvina began in the city of
Harare and subsequently in other urban areas, such as the city of
Bulawayo, ostensibly to oust illegal vendors and eliminate illegal
structures;
Whereas Operation Murambatsvina was carried out as an indiscriminate demolition
of the homes and livelihood of thousands of Zimbabwean citizens already
suffering from a protracted economic and political crisis brought on by
poor policy directives by the Government of Zimbabwe that forced masses
of rural dwellers to urban areas of the country for survival;
Whereas in some communities that were victimized by the forced demolitions,
including Cheru Farm and Killarney Farm where more than 20,000 people
lived, Zimbabweans had lived in residences for over 20 years and had
well-functioning schools, health and HIV/AIDS clinics, orphanages for
AIDS-affected children, viable businesses, places of worship, and other
amenities;
Whereas in 1993, the Government of Zimbabwe moved families from Cheru Farms to a
new location, Porto Farm, which during Operation Murambatsvina was
demolished by Zimbabwean Government forces;
Whereas government security forces carried out Operation Murambatsvina, and in
doing so, beat residents and forced them to destroy their own homes and
places of business, though many residents provided permits from
municipal authorities granting permission to build their structures;
Whereas Operation Murambatsvina resulted in the demolition throughout the
country of homes, businesses, and religious structures, including a
mosque, and an AIDS orphanage and in the intimidation, harassment, and
arrest of tens of thousands of people;
Whereas Operation Murambatsvina cut off many AIDS patients from anti-retroviral
medicines which will likely lead to a reversal of their health,
resistance to the drugs, and a more virulent form of AIDS in Zimbabwe
with potential for spreading throughout the region and worldwide;
Whereas churches and private citizens sheltering the victims of Operation
Murambatsvina were also intimidated, harassed, and arrested for their
efforts to provide a safe haven for the victims during Zimbabwe's harsh
winter;
Whereas armed soldiers and police forcibly removed hundreds of homeless people
from churches in the city of Bulawayo and banned religious groups from
providing humanitarian assistance to those seeking shelter at
Hellensvale, a transit camp north of Zimbabwe's second city, and where
police arrested and detained religious leaders;
Whereas a strongly worded statement issued by the Bulawayo clergy stated: ``The
removal of the poor, innocent, weak, voiceless and vulnerable members of
society by riot police in the middle of the night was uncalled for and
unnecessary. It is inhumane, brutal and insensitive, and in total
disregard of human rights and dignity. These people are not criminals
but bona fide citizens of this nation. It seems the crime they committed
is that they are poor.'';
Whereas the African Commission for Peoples' and Human Rights dispatched an
African Union envoy, Bahame Tom Nyanduga, Special Rapporteur on
Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons, and Asylum Seekers in Africa to
investigate the ongoing demolitions;
Whereas the Government of Zimbabwe refused to allow the African Union envoy an
opportunity to conduct his mission after being accused by the Government
of Zimbabwe through its government-controlled media of ``following the
agenda of western countries'';
Whereas in response to the crisis, the Secretary-General of the United Nations
dispatched a special envoy, Ms. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Deputy
Secretary General, United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-
HABITAT), on a factfinding mission to assess the scope and impact of
Operation Murambatsvina on the people of Zimbabwe and its consequences
for the Zimbabwean Government;
Whereas the mission of the United Nations special envoy was undertaken between
June 26 and July 8, 2005, where she visited the cities of Harare,
Headlands, Rusape, Mutare, Gweru, Bulawayo, Hwange, and Victoria Falls
and met with victims of Operation Murambatsvina, heard personal
testimony from victims, and met with members of the diplomatic
community, the Government of Zimbabwe, and international nongovernmental
organizations;
Whereas the United Nations special envoy estimated that approximately 700,000
people in cities across the country have lost either their homes, their
source of livelihood, or both, and that a total of 2.4 million people or
18 percent of the population was directly or indirectly affected by
Operation Murambatsvina and that the operation would have considerable
short-term and long-term impact on social and economic conditions in the
country;
Whereas 40,800 families directly affected by Operation Murambatsvina were headed
by women, and 83,530 children under the age of four and 26,600 people
age 60 and older were directly affected;
Whereas President Robert Mugabe described this sudden and extensive operation
against thousands of families and business persons in the dead of winter
as necessary ``to eliminate hideouts of crime and grime'';
Whereas the United Nations special envoy is quoted as saying ``the poor are not
criminals . . . [t]hey work hard to obtain the little which they have
and they should not thus be treated like criminals'';
Whereas the United Nations special envoy assessed the negative impact of
Operation Murambatsvina on shelter, water and sanitation, food and
nutrition, basic health services, HIV/AIDS, education, women and girls,
refugees and other vulnerable groups;
Whereas the special envoy concluded that Operation Murambatsvina ``has rendered
people homeless and economically destitute on an unprecedented scale;
most of the victims were already among the most economically
disadvantaged groups in society; and they have now been pushed deeper
into poverty and have become even more vulnerable; and the scale of
suffering is immense, particularly among widows, single mothers,
children, orphans, the elderly and the disabled persons'';
Whereas the rise of urbanization and the informal sector in Zimbabwe has been
the direct result of failed economic policies, a bitterly disputed fast
track land reform program, unplanned cash handouts to appease war
veterans, the costly military intervention in Congo, and persistent
drought;
Whereas before Operation Murambatsvina, unemployment in Zimbabwe was between 70
and 80 percent, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate was 24 percent, and the
inflation rate was 164.4 percent (but was as high as 522.8 percent), and
currently Zimbabwe has the world's fastest shrinking economy, there is
an ongoing fuel crisis in the country, and the Zimbabwean economy had
contracted 7 percent; and
Whereas the staggering suffering brought on by Operation Murambatsvina has been
added to the already large-scale humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
(A) through Operation Murambatsvina, the Government
of Zimbabwe has created a humanitarian disaster that
has compounded the already existing humanitarian food
and economic crises in the country, and the Government
of Zimbabwe has insufficient resources to address such
crises;
(B) the Government of Zimbabwe has a duty to
protect the economic, social, and political rights of
its citizens as guaranteed by the Constitution of
Zimbabwe and the African Charter on Human and Peoples'
Rights; and
(C) the Government of Zimbabwe also is subject to
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, to which Zimbabwe is a party, which
states in part that ``forced evictions are prima facie
incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant and
can only be carried out under specific circumstances'';
and
(2) the House of Representatives--
(A) condemns Operation Murambatsvina as a major
humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Government of
Zimbabwe's callousness toward its own people, disregard
for the rule of law, and lack of planning to move
families and businesses to more desirable locations;
(B) calls on the United Nations, the African
Commission for Peoples' and Human Rights, and the
African Union to continue efforts to investigate the
impact of the demolitions of housing structures and
premises from which informal businesses operated and to
provide the international community with a viable
strategy to address the problems;
(C) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to allow
international humanitarian organizations access to
those affected by the operation who are in need of
food, medicine, shelter, sanitation, and water;
(D) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to hold
accountable those responsible for this egregious injury
to the Zimbabwean people, both the decisionmakers of
the operation and those who carried out the operation;
(E) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to
immediately and aggressively implement politics to
promote the private sector and create jobs and build
housing to accommodate those displaced by the
operation;
(F) calls on the United Nations and the
international community to stand by the people of
Zimbabwe who have been victimized by their government
in this operation and to help them with relief and
reconstruction of their lives; and
(G) calls on the President of the United States to
instruct the United States Executive Director to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) to use the voice,
vote, and influence of the United States to support the
IMF review of Zimbabwe's membership in that institution
currently underway, and to give serious consideration
to further action at the IMF should the Government of
Zimbabwe continue to pursue destructive economic
policies, fail to make payments on its arrears, or
block immediate emergency humanitarian assistance from
the international community through the World Food
Program and other international humanitarian agencies.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
Ordered to be Reported by Unanimous Consent.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology.
Mr. Smith (NJ) moved to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended.
Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H11630-11637)
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DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H. Res. 409.
At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.
Considered as unfinished business. (consideration: CR H11921)
Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 421 - 1 (Roll no. 649).(text: CR 12/14/2005 H11630-11631)
Roll Call #649 (House)On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 421 - 1 (Roll no. 649). (text: CR 12/14/2005 H11630-11631)
Roll Call #649 (House)Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.