Everyone is crying

Early reports suggest that the strike called for today and tomorrow in Zimbabwe has made a slow start at best. Meanwhile the war of Mugabe's government against the Zimbabwean people continues:

Police moved in to clear a shanty town in the Harare suburbs today and armoured vehicles were seen heading off to another restive township as a mass "stayaway" called by the opposition in Zimbabwe got off to a shaky start.

Trudy Stevenson, an opposition MP, said that thousands of people were being loaded on to lorries and driven away from Hatcliffe Extension, a shanty town in her Harare North constituency. The town had already been largely demolished by police but most of its 20,000 population had stayed behind.

"It's like a war, where people disappear and you don't know what happened to them all," Mrs Stevenson told Times Online from the scene. "They don't know where they're being taken."

Mrs Stevenson said that she was working with a local Catholic priest to try to register the names of those families being taken away to stop them simply disappearing. They were being allowed to take some clothes, food and basic furniture, but the remains of their houses were being left behind. Riot police were standing by in case any residents refused to leave.

"Their housing material, their log cabins, roofing, windows are being left here on the ground. I'm afraid the police are going to steal it or set fire to it," the MP said. "That's a huge loss, these are some of the poorest people in Zimbabwe. It's terrible."

On Trudy Stevenson, see also here. There are some pictures here. This is from an eyewitness account:

They came and destroyed my house and right now I am on the street with my children.

My daughters are only eight and four years old and now they are sleeping on the roadside.

There is no sanitation and no water and they ask me: "Dad - what is going on? When are we going home?"

It was too painful for me to answer that question.

I had lived in the township for five years and we were paying rates to the local authorities.

My neighbours are all crying - everyone is crying. Some of them have even decided to take their own lives.

I've got nowhere to go and no money. My kids are crying for food and are looking at me.

When I look at my children, the tears flow from my eyes.