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Clerics compare Zim to apartheid SA
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
April 13, 2007

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_SADC&set_id=1&click_id=84&art_id=nw20070413130441807C504881

Bulawayo - Senior South African Catholic clerics visiting Zimbabwe have condemned regional leaders for failing to curb President Robert Mugabe's violent crackdown on political opposition.

Archbishop Buti Tlagale of Johannesburg and Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, said leaders of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) were lending tacit approval to Mugabe's tactics.

"The church is challenging SADC leaders because they are silent and letting this oppression go on," Bishop Dowling said during a prayer service in Bulawayo, second city in the country, late on Thursday.

"Our political leaders by their silence are co-operating in the oppression of Zimbabweans and we are going to tell this," he said.

The two bishops, who were hosted by Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube - an outspoken critic of Mugabe - compared the current situation in Zimbabwe to that of South Africa under apartheid.

"Apartheid did what the current regime is doing to Zimbabweans. Listening to your stories has helped us remember and realise that the oppression here and the oppression we endured is very similar," Dowling said.

Archbishop Tlagale said churches in Zimbabwe and the region had a duty to work for social change by mounting visible and sustained campaigns "until evil dissipates".

The service was marked by police interference, with some Zimbabwean pastors scheduled to address the service prevented from talking.

Pastor Raymond Motsi of the Christian Alliance, a group of clerics co-ordinating the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, was picked up by police and questioned before being released an hour later.

While Western nations have sharply condemned Mugabe since opposition leaders were arrested and assaulted ahead of a planned anti-government rally earlier last month, SADC countries have been noticeably more muted in their response.

SADC chief Tomaz Salomao, who is currently in Harare to assess the economic situation, was quoted by the state-controlled Herald newspaper on Friday urging Zimbabwe's neighbours to focus on practical solutions to the country's problems.

"I think it's time to talk less and do the work," Salomao said.

"What's good for Zimbabwe is good for the region. What's bad for Zimbabwe is bad for the region", he added.

Salomao met President Robert Mugabe and was expected to hold further meetings with Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi and central bank chief Gideon Gono.

His visit follows an extraordinary summit in Tanzania last month where South African President Thabo Mbeki was appointed to facilitate talks between Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

SADC has blamed Zimbabwe's economic woes on targeted sanctions imposed on Mugabe and members of his inner circle by the United States and the European Union. - Sapa-AFP

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