Amnesty releases Zimbabwe film 

Amnesty International has released new film footage smuggled out of Zimbabwe that it says reveals the "desperate plight" of the country's homeless.

The human rights group said the footage was filmed earlier this month to illustrate the suffering of those caught up in the slum clearance policy "Operation Murambatsvina" (Drive Out Trash) which was launched by President Robert Mugabe's government.

Video footage smuggled out in June led more than 200 international human rights groups to condemn Mugabe's campaign, which has left thousands of families destitute.

Amnesty claims the new film includes shots of those currently being held in Hopley Farm, described by the agency as "an informal camp on the outskirts of Harare", the country's capital.

Amnesty's researcher on Zimbabwe, Audrey Gaughran, said: "Rather than confront the massive humanitarian crisis that its actions have created, the government of Zimbabwe is compounding suffering and human rights violations by attempting to hide the most visible signs of internal displacement.

"We now know about Hopely Farm but how many other locations are there that the world is not aware of?

"How many thousands of ordinary Zimbabweans are now living in these horrifying conditions?

Amnesty claims transit camps in Harare and Bulawayo, which were set up after the operation, were closed down and their inhabitants taken into the countryside or sent back to the demolished slums in response to a damning UN report on the policy.

The Zimbabwean government claims Operation Murambatsvina - which the the United Nations believes left more than 700,000 people homeless or without jobs when it was launched in May - was aimed at clearing slums and flushing out criminals.

But the opposition Movement for Democratic Change claims it was designed as a punishment for its supporters in poor urban districts for voting against the ruling Zanu-PF party in parliamentary elections.

June's footage showed bewildered families sleeping in the open after police torched and bulldozed their shanty town homes. Street markets were also targeted, their stalls left in smouldering ruins.

It was gathered by the church-based Solidarity Peace Trust, after police prevented journalists from filming the demolition campaign.

At the time, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called on African leaders to speak out against the operation following reports that two children had been crushed to death as their homes were destroyed.