UK:ANGLICANS IN Zimbabwe are being subjected to oppression and religious persecution, a press conference at the Lambeth Conference was told yesterday, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, in Canterbury.
The Bishop of Harare, Sebastian Bakare, said Anglicans in his diocese were being "persecuted and denied freedom of worship" at the instigation of the former Anglican bishop of the diocese who "enjoyed the support of Mugabe."
He was referring to bishop Nolbert Kunonga, an ardent support of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party, who had his licence as a clergyman in the Anglican communion revoked by his fellow bishops on February 3rd last.
In September 2007 the former bishop, who has also faced allegations of evicting villagers from their homes and of incitement to murder, declared that he was breaking up the Anglican province of Central Africa and withdrawing the Harare diocese because of the province's "liberal" approach to homosexuality. He said the province had failed to adequately censure bishops who are sympathetic to homosexuality.
Yesterday Bishop Bakare told the conference Anglicans in his diocese "are not allowed worship" and that all their church buildings had been "locked up". He said that "on Christmas Day we were not allowed use any of our churches". Any attempts to do so then or since had been broken up by police. "It is not easy to pray when police totally interrupt, and have even pulled people away from the altar rails," he said.
News in recent days that Robert Mugabe was talking to the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, "has given us a little hope," he said, but it was "too early to say what would happen where a sustainable solution was concerned". The "most urgent issue is to have a peaceful environment where people don't have to fear for their lives". The next priority was that people "can afford the necessities" and where "the rule of law is observed and human dignity is respected". Currently the system in Zimbabwe was "oppressive and it denies the people human rights and religious freedom".
He said the people were also "very fearful" of a repeat of the situation whereby an agreement by Robert Mugabe with then opposition leader Joshua Nkomo simply saw Mugabe "swallowing the other party". He hoped that the current opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was aware of that past. "They [ people of Zimbabwe] want to believe that those on the opposition side are aware that Mugabe will not just hand on power." The situation of the Zimbabwean people was desperate, he said. "They are dying because there is no medicine. There is 80 per cent unemployment. No money anymore. Homes are being destroyed. Where is the good news? The good news is that power comes and goes, but people remain," he said.
He dismissed allegations that he was a member of Zimbabwe's MDC opposition party, as claimed by Mugabe supporters, including Nolbert Kunonga.
"I don't belong to any political party. It is easy for him to target me, but I am not. Not at all."