Zim accused of blocking assistance

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JOHANNESBURG -- Six months after Zimbabwe's government tore down the homes and businesses of hundreds of thousands of city dwellers it considered potential political opponents, at least 570,000 people remain homeless, many living outside with little or no shelter, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.

Worse, Zimbabwe's government is deliberately obstructing efforts by humanitarian groups to assist the displaced, the group said, creating what it termed a "massive humanitarian crisis" that the government has tried to conceal and other African nations have largely ignored.

"The very survival of many, particularly children and the chronically ill, is at risk. This appalling situation cannot be allowed to continue," Tiseke Kasambala, a Human Rights Watch researcher, urged at a Johannesburg news conference Thursday....