...WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush yesterday accused Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe of 'destroying' his country and urged countries in the region, especially South Africa, to pressure him to change.
'Next door to you is a person who is destroying a country because of bad policy, and it's not right. And the nations in the neighbourhood must be strong,' Bush said ahead of a trip to Europe next week.
Asked whether he was disappointed that President Thabo Mbeki had avoided publicly criticising Mugabe, Bush told a small group of news organisations, including AFP: 'I'm disappointed in Mugabe. The world needs to speak very clearly about the decisions he has made and the consequences' for those decisions.
Bush left little doubt he believed South Africa bore a special burden to speak out.
Bands of armed police have gone on the rampage over the past month in major towns across Zimbabwe, demolishing and torching backyard shacks and makeshift shop stalls in a campaign that has drawn global condemnation.
The operation has so far left between 200000 and 1,5 million people homeless, according to the United Nations and the opposition respectively.
The double-barrelled crackdown, code-named Operation Murambatsvina (Get rid of trash) and referred to as "tsunami" among urban dwellers, comes against the backdrop of galloping inflation and food and fuel shortages.
The demolition of shacks and unauthorised dwellings has spawned a new housing crisis in Zimbabwe's townships, where families are resorting to sharing scarce space in the few homes left standing.
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