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Security of tenure: Conditions and trends129displaced every year through the construction of large dams,primarily in Asia. In addition, some 6 million people arebeing displaced annually by urban development and transportationprogrammes. 46 The compensation provided to thepeople relocated has often been much less than promised,whether in cash, in kind or employment, and has resulted inworsening impoverishment for many. Quite often, tensionsremain high in the regions where relocations for suchprojects have taken place long after the resettlementofficially ends. 47Many governments continue to believe that suchlarge-scale mega projects will reduce poverty and raisenational incomes. These same projects, however, even ifbringing some benefit, are far too frequently the cause ofincreased poverty and major displacement. A former presidentof Argentina referred to mega projects as ‘monumentsto corruption’. 48 In another instance, during the early 1990s,in Karachi, Pakistan, the World Bank was willing to fund an87 kilometre-long expressway (about one third of itelevated), despite strong opposition that the project designwas inappropriate and expensive; would have an adverseenvironmental impact on the city; cause much dislocation;cause much disruption, especially in the city centre; andaffect the historical buildings in the city. 49 After strongresistance by citizens’ groups, the World Bank, to its credit,withdrew support for the project.cases, tenants are given little or no notice of their evictionand never receive the promised compensation, sometimesleaving the evictees homeless because of lack of or inadequatecompensation.In an attempt to reduce the negative housing impactsof the Olympic Games, the International OlympicCommittee has been repeatedly urged by NGOs and othersto play a firmer role in discouraging host cities from usingthe games as a pretext for eviction and to take eviction intentionsinto account in determining future hosts of theOlympics. To date, however, the International OlympicCommittee has refused to take any concrete measures tofacilitate greater respect for housing rights and security oftenure in connection with the Olympic Games. 52■ Urban beautificationAnother common type of forced evictions is carried out inthe name of urban beautification, or simply cleaning up acity, often in conjunction with investment inducements.Urban beautification is in itself used as justification and legitimizationof such evictions. The forced eviction operationcarried out in May 2005 in Zimbabwe is a case in point. TheUnited Nations Special Envoy described OperationMurambatsvina as follows in the report of the fact-findingmission to Zimbabwe to assess the scope and impact of the1.7 million peoplehave reportedlybeen evicted inBeijing (China) inthe run-up to the2008 OlympicGames■ International mega eventsInternational mega events, including global conferences andinternational sporting events such as the Olympic Games,are often the rationale behind large-scale evictions. Forinstance, reports indicate that some 720,000 people wereforcibly evicted in Seoul and Inchon (South Korea), prior tothe 1988 Olympic Games. 50 Some 30,000 were forciblyevicted in Atlanta prior to the 1996 Olympic Games. Theoldest public housing project in the US, Techwood Homes,was deliberately de-tenanted because it stood in the way of a‘sanitized corridor’ running through to CNN headquartersand the city centre. Half of the 800 houses were knockeddown. Of the remainder, after renovation, only one fifth wasreserved for poor families, and strict new credit and criminalrecord checks excluded many who most needed these units.The other apartments have become middle- to upper-incomeaccommodation. Preparations for the 2004 Olympic Gamesin Athens were used as a pretext to forcibly evict severalRoma settlements located in Greater Athens, ultimatelyforcing hundreds from their homes. 51A further 1.7 million people have reportedly beenevicted in Beijing (China) in the run-up to the 2008 OlympicGames (see Box 5.13). Some 300,000 people have beenrelocated to make room for facilities directly linked to theOlympic Games. These locations have experienced thecomplete demolition of houses belonging to the poor, whohave been relocated far from their communities andworkplaces, with inadequate transportation networks. Theprocess of demolition and eviction is characterized byarbitrariness and lack of due process, with courts reportedlyoften refusing to hear cases of forced evictions because ofpressure on judges and lawyers by local officials. In manyBox 5.13 Forced evictions caused or ‘facilitated’ by the2008 Beijing OlympicsThe mayor of Beijing has said that some 300,000 people will be relocated from sites where facilitiesfor holding the 2008 Summer Olympics are to be constructed. This includes competitionvenues, the athlete’s village, management facilities, green spaces, transport lines, hubs and amenitiesfor visitors. However, if the standard for assessing the impact of the 2008 Olympics onrelocations is widened to include urban development activities that were either speeded up,enlarged or facilitated by the politics of ‘holding the best Olympics ever’, then the impact will bemuch larger. Among the projects ‘helped along’ by the Olympics are the expansion of thecapital’s transportation network – including the airport, subway and light rail network; extensivedemolitions in the Qianmen quarter and its planned reconstruction; the approval and constructionof a central business district on the city’s east side; a new round of massive public contractsand investments in the high-tech corridor of Zhongguancun; the clearance of old work unit(danwei) housing in the central east corridor between the second and fourth ring roads to makeroom for high-end residential developments, luxury shopping complexes and entertainmentdistricts; and large environmental remediation projects, including the rustication to HebeiProvince of the main facility of the Capital Steel Factory.It has been estimated that some 1.7 million people are directly affected bydemolitions/relocations in Beijing for the period of 2001 to 2008 – the high tide of Olympicpreparations. This includes the mayor’s estimate of those moved because of Olympic construction.By comparison, for the nine years of 1991 to 1999, demolitions/relocations directlyaffected 640,000 persons, or roughly 70,000 persons annually. The average for the pre-Olympicperiod is nearly three times larger (or 200,000 annually). Whether the 400,000 migrantworkers living in the informal settlements (chengzhongcun) within the capital’s fourth ring roadhave been included in the mayor’s relocation estimate is unclear. In all likelihood they have notbecause very few migrant workers own property legally in Beijing. Moreover, because they arerenters in illegally constructed buildings, they have virtually no protection against eviction or theright to a resettlement allowance. The total direct costs of holding the 2008 Olympic Gameshave been estimated at US$37 billion. The actual cost is likely to be considerably higher if lossesto individuals are included.Source: Westendorff, 2007