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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday he wants to go to Zimbabwe to see firsthand the effects of a much-condemned, government-led clearance of urban slums and insisted those made homeless must be given new homes.
He announced his desire to go to Zimbabwe three days after the release of a devastating report by a U.N. envoy that the slum clearances have left an estimated 700,000 people without their homes and livelihoods or both. No date has been set for the visit, Annan said
A further 2.4 million people have been affected by the countrywide campaign that began with little warning May 19, said the report by Anna Tibaijuka after a visit to Zimbabwe. The report said Operation Murambatsvina — Drive Out Trash — had "unleashed chaos and untold human suffering" in a country already gripped by economic crisis.
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