This 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.

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Graphic by Chaz Maviyane-Davies

In Zimbabwe today the politicization of the police has proceeded so far as to create, in all but name, two different classes of citizens. The upper class consists of the ZANU PF ruling elite and those who enjoy their patronage and protection. They stand effectively above the law so that the law enforcement agencies will protect their interests as necessary yet without holding them accountable even when they infringe the rights of others in the most gross and obvious way. The vast underclass on the other hand consists of those who are excluded from this favoured circle. If the enforcement of their human rights involves even the slightest inconvenience to the favoured ones, the police are likely to refuse to act, leaving them without legal redress. But even the slightest transgression on their part will likely bring down upon them the full weight of the law. Effectively one law for those enjoying the favour of the dictator, and another for those who do not.

Refugees sheltering in church grounds

Baton-wielding police in full anti-riot gear descended on a number of churches across the city last night and into the early hours of this morning to forcibly remove several hundred homeless victims of Operation Murambatsvina still sheltering in the churches. The victims of this latest human rights outrage were awakened from sleep and bundled with their few pathetic belongings onto the back of police trucks believed to be headed for the holding camp recently established at Balu Estate just north of Bulawayo.

The first church to feel the brunt of the police assault was Agape Church in the western suburbs which had been offering shelter to over 200 of those whose homes had been destroyed in Operation Murambatsvina. The police arrived there soon after 10 pm, wearing full anti-riot gear including helmets and batons. Witnesses were appalled at the brutal way in which men, women and children were forcibly removed from the premises.