AFRICA/ZIMBABWE - South African ecumenical delegation in Zimbabwe to view conditions of people after the government’s ‘Restore Order’ operation

Tuesday, 12 July 2005

Harare (Fides Service)- “Cruel and inuman” were the adjectives used by the South African Council of Churches to describe the present conditions of thousands of people in Zimbabwe who lost their homes in the government’s Restore Order operation allegedly to clear cities of black market and illegal housing (see Fides 30 May and 21 June2005).
To see the actual situation after the polic operation an ecumenical delegation of the South African Council of Churches recently went to Zimbabwe. Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, Archbishop of Durban who is President of the Southern African Bishops Conference was a member of the delegation.
The delegation which concluded its visit today was a guest of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and had meetings with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Zimbabwe and with the country’s Evangelical Alliance. The delegation visited Caledonia transit camp and met trade union leaders, representatives of civil society and members governing and opposition political parties.
A report on the consequences of the Restore Order operation is also being prepared by the representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan Ms Anna Tibaijuka who spent two weeks in Zimbabwe. Mrs Tibaijuka the police operation left at least 300,000 people homeless.
The Catholic Bishops of Zimbabwe issued a pastoral letter criticising the operation which they say was legal at the juridical level, but immoral since it affected the poorest of the poor depriving them of homes and work without any compensation. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 12/7/2005 righe 33 parole 284)


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