Sunday, 8 July, 2001, 14:31 GMT 15:31 UK
Angolan police clear 'unsafe' suburb
By Justin Pearce in Luanda
Angolan police have begun removing thousands of residents from an inner-city neighbourhood in the capital Luanda.
Hundreds of police, some on horseback and some armed with automatic weapons, batons and tear gas, arrived at dawn in the neighbourhood of Boavista, which sits on a hill above Luanda's city centre.
Eyewitnesses described how the police used dogs to herd people out of their houses and took them to a public square about a kilometre away.
Youths with sledgehammers then set about knocking down the houses.
Heavy-handed treatment
Eyewitnesses said that soldiers had earlier participated in the operation, but had later left when word got out that foreign media were on their way.
An Angolan journalist and this correspondent were threatened and manhandled by a man in plain clothes when we attempted to talk to residents.
The government recently announced its intention to remove the 60,000 residents of Boavista to a site 40km outside the city.
The people will be in tents until they build new homes using materials that the government said it would provide.
Twenty-six households were targeted for Sunday's removals, but the government has said it would continue.
Houses exchanged for tents
The authorities say that heavy rain and erosion have made the site dangerous.
Indeed, several houses collapsed during the rainy season earlier this year, but most of houses in Boavista are built on solid ground.
Residents have invested time and money in building their homes and are particularly angry that they are being offered only tents in compensation.
The residents include teachers, civil servants, and police officers, who work in the city and are not happy that the new site is more than an hour's journey away.
The real motive for the removals is unknown, but many residents believe that the government wants to redevelop the site for business use.
Boavista is next to the smart suburb of
Miramar and its views of the bay make it a
potentially desirable piece of land.
-- Anonymous, July 08, 2001