Washington: Reports of thousands of Zimbabweans still homeless after a controversial government clean-up program are 'nonsense,' Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said in an ABC News interview.
"Anyone who wants facts should come and see what's happening. We removed them from slums and put them in new places," Mugabe said in the interview.
"Obviously when you destroy slums, even as you prepare new places for them, there is a dislocation, disorganization of the family for that moment," Mugabe added.
A UN statement said it was getting reports that tens of thousands of people were still homeless and in need of aid since Zimbabwe's eviction campaign began in May 2005.
Mugabe's government has refused aid from the world body because of the UN's description of the demolition program as a humanitarian crisis, and over calls for the prosecution of those who led the campaign.
"Thousands and thousands. You go there now and see whether those thousands are there. Where are they? A figment of their imagination. They exaggerated," Mugabe said.
Zimbabwe does not welcome outside scrutiny by foreign media. The government has arrested, deported or denied entry to dozens of journalists under media laws forbidding foreigners from working permanently as journalists in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe's government says the rules were necessary to restore professionalism in the private media, which it accuses of driving a Western propaganda campaign against Harare over its seizure of white-owned farms for blacks.
Mugabe is accused by his critics of wrecking the southern African state by rigging major elections in the last five years and pursuing controversial policies which have left him branded a dictator.
In the interview, he denied charges that the demolition program targeted supporters of his political opponents.
"That is the message of the opposition, of course they would say that," Mugabe said, calling it a move to cleanup slums.
Mugabe also told ABC that he would remain in charge of the country, after he leaves office.
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