Wednesday 13 August 2008

By Bronwen Dachs, Catholic News Service

As soon as a political solution is found in Zimbabwe, work on reconciliation should begin immediately, said a US bishop who had just concluded a visit to the troubled country.

The Zimbabwean Catholic justice and peace commission is working with other nongovernmental organizations on strategies to rebuild the deeply divided country, said Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, in a telephone interview from Johannesburg, South Africa, 9 August. Bishop Ricard and a US bishops' adviser on Africa visited Zimbabwe 6-9 August.

Reconciliation in Zimbabwe, which is experiencing severe political and economic crises, is a "serious concern" of the country's bishops, said Bishop Ricard, who is chairman of the US bishops' Subcommittee on the Pastoral Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa.

Church leaders are "revisiting the way the church responded in the past" to issues of justice and "much reflection is being done," he said.

He noted that Catholic supporters of longtime ruler Robert Mugabe "are sitting side by side in the pews" with those who back the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

"Nobody (in Zimbabwe) was prepared for the violence that followed the March elections, and they don't want to be caught unprepared again, for whatever comes next," he said.

Human rights groups have said that, since the March elections, supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change have been the targets of brutal state-sponsored violence that left more than 80 dead and 200,000 displaced.

Bishop Ricard, who last visited Zimbabwe in 2006, said it is "clearly evident" that churches in Zimbabwe are "working together in an ecumenical manner and pooling their resources to advocate on the part of those suffering" in the political and economic crises.

The country's church leaders "feel the suffering of their people and are very aware that they need to be engaged and cannot stand idly by," he said, noting that "it is clear that the country is in crisis, with widespread suffering."

Bishop Ricard said many homes he visited had been without electricity and running water for more than six months, and he noted a "very definite deterioration in infrastructure" in Zimbabwe since his last visit.

"There is a helplessness, an uncertainty" in the country, he said, with many people showing a "sense of bewilderment, aware that they are at the brink of change and that something needs to happen."

Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate and severe shortages of basic foods and fuel. The bishop said he visited parishes "where children were obviously undernourished."

Many Zimbabweans are "completely preoccupied with making it through their daily lives," Bishop Ricard said.

"They suffer enormous stress in feeding their children, getting water, getting money. ... There's a lot of coping that's necessary just to survive," he said.

Mugabe, 84, has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years. He was sworn in for a sixth term after a June 27 runoff election in which he was the only candidate.

Morgan Tsvangirai, who won the first round of the presidential poll in March, boycotted the runoff, citing violence against his supporters.

South African President Thabo Mbeki met 10 August with Mugabe and Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, amid reports of an imminent power-sharing deal. Mbeki is overseeing the negotiations that began in South Africa in late July.

Meanwhile, the South African Council of Churches, of which the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference is a member, said it is "concerned over reports of persistently high levels of violence in Zimbabwe."

Unless the violence is curbed soon, it "will undermine the legitimacy of any agreement in Zimbabwe," the council said in a 7 August statement from Johannesburg, noting its alarm at "increasingly frequent reports of atrocities, including the hacking off of (ruling party) opponents' limbs."

While urging "leaders on both sides to appeal for peace and tolerance," the council said Mugabe's government "has the primary responsibility to act immediately and decisively to halt the violence."

"Political power-sharing must not be the be-all and end-all of the Zimbabwean negotiations," the council said, noting that "negotiating politicians may distribute positions and resources" among themselves, "but it is the needs of the people of Zimbabwe that must be met above all others."

[CNS]