Monday 12 May 2008 

By John Newton and John Pontifex
 
Church leaders in Zimbabwe have released a statement condemning revenge attacks against people who failed to vote for Robert Mugabe in the elections – abducting, wounding and even murdering their victims.

In a strongly-worded document, sent to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Catholic and Protestant leaders spoke out against the organised violence "unleashed" against people "accused of campaigning or voting for the 'wrong' political party".

The statement, issued by the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, described a crisis sparked by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s failure to release the results of the 29 March presidential elections.

Expressing "deep concern" about the country’s deteriorating human rights situation, the statement continues: "People are being abducted, tortured and humiliated…and ordered to attend mass meetings where they are told they voted for the ‘wrong’ candidate… and in some cases, people are murdered."

Those attacked were warned against voting for "the 'wrong' candidate" again in the forth-coming run-off Presidential elections.

The statement went on to say that, "Victims of organized torture who are ferried to hospital find little solace as the hospitals have no drugs or medicines to treat them".

The Church leaders add: "The deterioration in the humanitarian situation is plummeting at a frightful pace. The cost of living has gone beyond the reach of the majority of our people. There is widespread famine in most parts of the countryside."

The statement comes on the heels of ACN’s emergency grant of $30,000 announced on Thursday 8 May and intended to help needy children in the archdiocese of Bulawayo, in south-west Zimbabwe.

Only a few days ago, Aid to the Church in Need, which helps suffering Christians, received information from a source in Zimbabwe, describing a situation spiralling out of control.

The source, who for safety reasons remains anonymous, said, "The army has started to beat people… Some 11 people have been killed, many have been maimed and wounded, and hundreds of houses have been burnt."

The army brutally attacked and injured civilians in areas which did not vote for Robert Mugabe’s party ZANU PF.
Reports claim that four villages near Chiweshe in the Mashonaland Central Province were targeted on Monday 5 May, leaving 11 people dead and more than 20 others seriously injured.

ACN’s source in Zimbabwe said, "People live now in fear, and they are terrorized and questioned, 'For whom did you vote?' Suddenly secret voting is not allowed. People are beaten and told, in the next elections vote 'correctly'".

According to ACN’s source Zimbabwe feels that it has been abandoned by the rest of the world: "While people here are suffering and are being humiliated the outside world keeps quiet."

[ACN]