IOM to resettle Zimbabwean farm violence victims
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) The International Organization for Migration (IOM)
said Saturday that it was resettling more than 340 Zimbabwean families
displaced by farm violence in the east of the country last year.
The organization said in a statement that the 342 families have been living
in two emergency displacement settlements in Chipinge since October 2009.
In a joint programme with the Zimbabwean government, IOM has been moving the
displaced families and providing them with alternative accommodation in
another village in Chipinge district.
IOM assistance includes transportation to the village of Mugondi, the
construction of community-based shelters and water and sanitation facilities
such as temporary latrines and sinking boreholes and the rehabilitation of
classroom blocks.
IOM said it was also working with the Zimbabwean government to ensure that
sufficient land tenure documentation is provided to the families being
resettled.
Zimbabwe’s fast track land reform programme which began in 2000 has led to
widespread land disputes in many farming communities across the country.
The families were displaced following clashes between newly resettled
small-scale farmers and tenants in the Chipinge farming areas after labour
disputes on the farms.
The result was a wave of farm evictions, displacements and the destruction
of more than 400 houses, leaving almost 1,700 individuals homeless.
JN/daj/APA
2010-09-18