CTJP Statement in Support of Roy Bennett

We, Christians Together for Justice and Peace, an informal, ecumenical group of church leaders meeting in Bulawayo, write to express our sense of outrage at the persecution of the Hon. Roy Bennett, MDC Member of Parliament for Chimanimani – a sustained persecution which culminated in the sentence imposed on him by Parliament in October. We write, not in a partisan spirit, but rather because we are confronted here with a blatant example of a gross injustice, to which we would feel bound to respond whatever the colour, ethnicity or political affiliation of the victim.

We believe his sentence to be totally disproportionate to the incident in question. In fact we regard him as a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned for his stand as a popular opposition MP in a rural constituency. We fully endorse the statement made recently by the Churches in Manicaland in his support.

We view Roy Bennett’s case as being representative of all those who have been detained without trial or through the abuse of the legal system, and all those who are being held in sub-human conditions in jails and holding cells across the country. Many of these people do not have a voice to protest at the injustice done to them.

We therefore encourage individuals to sign the “Free Roy Bennett” petition, which is circulating throughout the churches and civic society, and to continue to uphold him and his family in prayer. Let us pray and work together for the coming of that day when justice will “roll on like a river and righteousness like a never-failing stream”. (Amos 5/24)

Christians Together for Justice and Peace,
Bulawayo.
15th December, 2004