More shacks destroyed

Armed police at the weekend raided a squatter camp on the banks of Mucheke river in Masvingo city, burnt down the plastic shacks and chased away more than 200 people including children who lived at the camp.

The squatters, who watched in agony as their shacks and belongings went up in smoke, had lived at the illegal camp since about 2001 and had somehow escaped the government's controversial urban clean-up campaign last year which the United Nations says left 700 000 people homeless after police demolished shantytowns and city backyard cottages. Last Sunday's demolition comes barely a week after President Robert Mugabe promised during his April 18 Independence Day speech to continue demolishing illegal settlements in cities and towns....