MUGABE SAYS URBAN BLITZ SHOULD BRING JOY

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday said his government should have emphasised the "reconstruction aspect" of a controversial programme of shack demolitions that human rights groups say has left at least 300 000 people homeless.

Mugabe told a seminar in the resort town of Victoria Falls that the exercise -- dubbed Operation Restore Order -- was seen by some as "a callous exercise to destroy homes".

Instead, he said it should be seen as bringing "joy" to the homeless because two million new houses will be built by 2010.

"Unfortunately when we started [Operation Restore Order] we did not emphasise that reconstruction aspect of it, which is the positive aspect", Mugabe said on state television. "But it was seen by others as a callous exercise to destroy homes."

Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which says the demolitions are a deliberate attack on its supporters, says the government is broke and cannot afford to build new houses.

The government has admitted it has not budgeted for the reconstruction programme, which it says will cost three trillion Zimbabwe dollars ($325-million).

Zimbabwe is already critically short of foreign currency, fuel and power as a result of failed government policies.

This year it will need to import 1,8-million tonnes of the staple maize to make up for failed harvests, blamed largely on the dismantling of white-owned large scale farms which have been occupied by landless Africans.

Since mid-May, riot police have swept through Zimbabwe's towns and cities, demolishing backyard shacks, cottages and housing co-operatives that they say were built illegally. Squatter camps, flea markets and home industry sites have also been targeted.

The programme has been condemned by many Western countries, churches and human rights groups, coming as it does in the middle of the southern African winter and at a time of escalating social and economic hardships.

Mugabe on Thursday insisted his government had destroyed only "shacks and attachments to houses that were meant to exploit the homeless".

Mugabe said by building new houses, the country would erase the "image of a Zimbabwe that is in ruins". - Sapa-DPA