Zimbabwe: South Africa Amnesty International has urged the United Nations not to abandon the people of Zimbabwe because of the actions of the country's president, Robert Mugabe.
Warning of a worsening humanitarian crisis in a report published today the human rights group said: "The political impasse between donors and the Zimbabwe government has serious consequences for the human rights of the people of Zimbabwe.
"Donor assistance is needed to enable people to access adequate housing and basic services such as water and sanitation." Amnesty estimates that less than 4 per cent of dwellings destroyed in State-sponsored evictions last year have been replaced.
Moreover, "contrary to government statements, almost none of the victims" of the so-called Operation Murambatsvina (Reject Filth) "have benefited from the rebuilding", the report said.
A UN special envoy to Zimbabwe estimated that 700,000 people had lost their homes, their livelihoods or both under the operation between May and July 2005.
The ruling Zanu-PF party said the evictions aimed to combat illegal trading but human rights groups believe they were targeted at political opponents and their supporters.
Amnesty researcher Audrey Gaughran said a UN-sponsored temporary shelter programme to house those affected was badly underfunded. Moreover, "the food situation is getting worse week by week".
"In the stalemate between donors and the Zimbabwean government, the people who are losing out are the people of Zimbabwe," said the Dubliner, who recently travelled Zimbabwe as part of an Amnesty mission.
Ms Gaughran also criticised the African Union (AU) for failing to "take seriously" the findings of its own Commission on Human and People's Rights.
She said Amnesty was concerned at recent attempts by the AU to set up a mediation process between Zimbabwe and Britain, the country's strongest critic, on the political impasse.
"To present the situation as a diplomatic dispute between the UK and Zimbabwe is a sleight of hand - because it ignores the huge human rights crisis."
The Zimbabwean government admitted to having demolished more than 92,000 houses in a three-month period last year. It further claimed to have built just over 3,000 homes by May 2006, an estimate which Ms Gaughran said was "reasonably accurate".
She noted the reconstruction programme, Operation Garikai (Live Well), has since stalled, however, "because there is no money to finish it".
Amnesty added that, in most locations, the criteria used for allocating new homes were "unknown", and the authorities had made no effort to identify or prioritise those in need. House allocations had been dogged by allegations of corruption, with claims that beneficiaries were "mostly police, soldiers and civil servants".
Meanwhile, Oxfam Ireland has expressed concern about the withdrawal from Zimbabwe of donor funding for HIV/Aids projects. Project co-ordinator Enida Friel said two of the three main international donors in the area, the World Bank, and the US President's Emergency Plan for HIV/Aids, had ceased to invest in Zimbabwe, while the third main donor, the UN Global Fund to Fight Aids, was giving money on a much reduced, and delayed, basis.
This was despite the fact that Zimbabweans had managed to reduce the HIV prevalence rate from 30 per cent in 2000 to about 20 per cent now, she said.