Police launch phase two of Operation Murambatsvina
Source Date: 23-08-2007

Police in the southern town of Masvingo on Tuesday fought running battles with informal traders accusing the vendors of returning to sites they were evicted from under a controversial government "clean-up" exercise two years ago. The police raided informal traders in the poor working class suburbs of Mucheke, Rujeko and Runyararo and confiscated goods worth millions of dollars during the operation.

Residents who spoke to Zim Online ... said the fresh police crackdown on vendors was reminiscent of Operation Murambatsvina … (which) left at least 700 000 people homeless while another 2.4 million people were directly affected by the clean-up exercise, according to a United Nations (UN) report.

Although some informal traders had operating licences issued by Masvingo council allowing them to sell their wares, the police ignored the licences arguing that the "papers" were issued in error…

The eviction of the vendors comes hardly a week after the Geneva-based international relief group, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, warned of fresh evictions in Zimbabwe.

Source: Zim Online (ZW)
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SADC standards breached

• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …