Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are people forced to flee their homes but who, unlike refugees, remain within their country's borders.
"We had nothing then and we still have nothing": the fourth anniversary of Murambatsvina
Sokwanele Article: May 25th, 2009
View our archive of Murambatsvina images here. Our article from 2005 titled "Operation Murambatsvina": An Overview and Summary, can be found at this link. Archived articles about Operation Murambatsvina can be read here. Remind people about Operation Murambatsvina by sending an e-card.
It was this time, Africa Day 25 May 2005, that Operation Murambatsvina was orchestrated by the Mugabe Government.
It was as cold then as it is today, with temperatures getting to well nigh freezing at night, when over 300,000 already impoverished Zimbabweans were thrown forcibly from their homes and forced to spend many nights out in the open.
Their homes had been razed to the ground by fire or bulldozers, their scanty property scattered in the dirt and Operation "Drive out the filth" took shape in Zimbabwe.
Action Alert: United Nations Security Council to be briefed on the Zimbabwe crisis on Tuesday 29th April 2008
Sokwanele Article: April 28th, 2008
The image on the right is of Tapiwa Mubwanda, the first MDC party official to be murdered by Zanu PF thugs.
We encourage all Zimbabweans to start speaking out and lobbying people around the world in your individual capacities. Sokwanele has set up an 'Action Contact Database' where we are collecting a range of contact names, useful for Zimbabwe email action initiatives, that Zimbabweans can easily find and use towards promoting non violent change in Zimbabwe. Please use it to find contact details so that you can speak out and tell people around the world what is happening in our country.
It is more than a month since the elections were held on March 29th 2008, and we are still waiting for the Presidential results.
Meanwhile, Zanu PF has embarked on a campaign of terror and intimidation in the rural areas against opposition supporters. There have been at least ten murders so far.
'The day I was troubled' : a Zimbabwean child's essay
Sokwanele Article: February 9th, 2008This is a story written by a 14 year old child, a victim of the Zanu PF government's Operation Murambatsvina.We give it to you here, literally in her own words. We've obscured some details to protect the child from potential reprisals.
