A Crime against Humanity
We, Christians Together for Justice and Peace, an informal, ecumenical group of church leaders in Bulawayo, write to express a sense of outrage at the most recent assault by the ruling powers upon the homeless and destitute in our land. We are aware that what we have witnessed here in Bulawayo over the last few days is part of a coordinated, national strategy by the ruling party. Our concern is for all the victims across this country of the utterly repugnant Operation Murambatsvina. Nevertheless our particular perspective is that of those to whom has been given the divine mandate to speak on behalf of the voiceless and the disempowered victims of injustice in the Matabeleland region.
We are appalled at the downward spiral of lawlessness and violence which we are witnessing among the very people who in any free, democratic and law-respecting society are charged with upholding the law and protecting the innocent – namely the police, the army and the security services. The trend that we observe for those employed in these services to fail to distinguish between the interests of ZANU PF on the one hand and of the State on the other, and to respect only the authority of the party, is deeply disturbing. The sustained attack upon the poorest of the poor in defiance of the laws of this land and of all the constitutional rights of the victims (who now run into millions), justifies the oft-made assertion that those who now rule Zimbabwe are in a state of undeclared war upon their own people. The people need to be rescued urgently from this destructive tyranny.
When we witness, as some of us have in the last 24 hours, uniformed police in full anti-riot gear unlawfully invading church premises late at night or in the early hours of the morning and forcibly removing hundreds, including the frail elderly and babes-in-arms, then we know we are dealing here with what can only be called a crime against humanity. When one of our number, a respected church leader who attended the scene in order to express his Christian solidarity with the victims of that crime, is subsequently arrested and interrogated in a hostile and threatening manner by police details some of whom we have reason to suspect are youth militia dressed in ZRP uniforms, then we know that our beloved country has become a fully-fledged police state. And when, the day before this outrage, another of our number who has exercised a pastoral ministry to some of these displaced persons for many years, is interrupted in the course of delivering a sermon to his parishioners at the holding camp to which they have been forcibly removed, and he is told to leave the camp immediately, then we know that those who now rule Zimbabwe are engaged in an undeclared war upon the Church. (The authorities at the holding camp in Helensvale have subsequently confirmed that no pastor or church representative is to set foot in the camp again without the express permission of the (ZANU PF) governor)
We view these latest moves of the ZANU PF regime as deeply sinister, and have the gravest concern for the welfare of the victims of Operation Murambatsvina who have now been forcibly removed from their homes (and temporary places of refuge) twice in a matter of weeks. It is abundantly clear to us that the regime has made no serious provision for re-housing and has no coherent policy for these victims of its own brutality, save for sweeping them out of the way – as so much “trash”. For their welfare we are now bound to look to the international community and specifically to the United Nations to intervene. Tragically the same is true of the nation as a whole as it seeks to be rescued from the death grip of a tyrannical power.
Let the United Nations and the international community take note that a crime against humanity is being perpetrated at this moment in Zimbabwe, and let them act accordingly and with all speed to spare us from further unimaginable suffering.
Christians Together for Justice and Peace
Bulawayo
July 21, 2005
We are appalled at the downward spiral of lawlessness and violence which we are witnessing among the very people who in any free, democratic and law-respecting society are charged with upholding the law and protecting the innocent – namely the police, the army and the security services. The trend that we observe for those employed in these services to fail to distinguish between the interests of ZANU PF on the one hand and of the State on the other, and to respect only the authority of the party, is deeply disturbing. The sustained attack upon the poorest of the poor in defiance of the laws of this land and of all the constitutional rights of the victims (who now run into millions), justifies the oft-made assertion that those who now rule Zimbabwe are in a state of undeclared war upon their own people. The people need to be rescued urgently from this destructive tyranny.
When we witness, as some of us have in the last 24 hours, uniformed police in full anti-riot gear unlawfully invading church premises late at night or in the early hours of the morning and forcibly removing hundreds, including the frail elderly and babes-in-arms, then we know we are dealing here with what can only be called a crime against humanity. When one of our number, a respected church leader who attended the scene in order to express his Christian solidarity with the victims of that crime, is subsequently arrested and interrogated in a hostile and threatening manner by police details some of whom we have reason to suspect are youth militia dressed in ZRP uniforms, then we know that our beloved country has become a fully-fledged police state. And when, the day before this outrage, another of our number who has exercised a pastoral ministry to some of these displaced persons for many years, is interrupted in the course of delivering a sermon to his parishioners at the holding camp to which they have been forcibly removed, and he is told to leave the camp immediately, then we know that those who now rule Zimbabwe are engaged in an undeclared war upon the Church. (The authorities at the holding camp in Helensvale have subsequently confirmed that no pastor or church representative is to set foot in the camp again without the express permission of the (ZANU PF) governor)
We view these latest moves of the ZANU PF regime as deeply sinister, and have the gravest concern for the welfare of the victims of Operation Murambatsvina who have now been forcibly removed from their homes (and temporary places of refuge) twice in a matter of weeks. It is abundantly clear to us that the regime has made no serious provision for re-housing and has no coherent policy for these victims of its own brutality, save for sweeping them out of the way – as so much “trash”. For their welfare we are now bound to look to the international community and specifically to the United Nations to intervene. Tragically the same is true of the nation as a whole as it seeks to be rescued from the death grip of a tyrannical power.
Let the United Nations and the international community take note that a crime against humanity is being perpetrated at this moment in Zimbabwe, and let them act accordingly and with all speed to spare us from further unimaginable suffering.
Christians Together for Justice and Peace
Bulawayo
July 21, 2005
posted at 10:05 pm
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