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05340
June 27, 2005
WCC condemns mass evictions in Zimbabwe
by Ecumenical News International
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GENEVA/HARARE — The World Council of Churches (WCC) has condemned the Zimbabwe government's programs of house demolition and mass forced evictions, which have left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans homeless. The council called for an immediate end to the crackdown.
"To carry out such acts of cruelty with impunity against her own people shows clearly that the government is losing the moral and ethical ground for leadership, healing and reconciliation," the Geneva-based church group said in a June 27 statement.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy, Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, arrived in Zimbabwe on June 26 to assess the campaign, which has rendered more than one million people homeless in the past month, bringing massive condemnation from churches, civic organizations and the international community.
As the envoy arrived, the independent Weekly Standard newspaper reported that the government's bulldozing of shacks deemed illegal had resulted in the deaths of six people, including four children. The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Teachers Union told the newspaper that as many as 300,000 children had dropped out of school after their homes were destroyed.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who has supported the operation, said he would meet the U.N. envoy to help the council "understand and appreciate what we are trying to do for our people, who deserve much better than the shacks that are now being romanticized as fitting habitats for them."
The WCC noted in its statement that the action was taking place during Zimbabwe's winter months and at a time when rural areas are suffering from the effects of a drought.
"It is difficult to (understand) the political rationale, why the government has embarked on this inhuman campaign," the WCC said, adding its support to condemnatory statements from the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference.
On June 27, Pope Benedict XVI hosted a meeting at the Vatican with Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Pius Ncube, who reportedly has said he would rather die than remain silent in the face of widespread human rights abuses in his country.
Earlier, the Catholic bishops in a pastoral letter condemned "the gross injustice done to the poor" through the campaign called "Operation Murambatsvina," which means "Operation Drive Out Trash" in Shona, the language spoken by most Zimbabweans. Officials have said the action was intended only to spruce up its cities and to flush out criminals.
However, opposition politicians have said the operation is retribution against the urban population for supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party in parliamentary elections earlier this year.
The WCC said the Zimbabwe government should initiate dialogue with the opposition, churches and civil society groups, and begin addressing the needs of suffering Zimbabweans.
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