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Zimbabwe: 'ugly, horrendous'
Pat Ashworth, Church Times
January 02, 2009

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=68279

The Bishop of Harare, Dr Sebastian Bakare, has voiced a "litany of challenges" of problems that are destroying Zimbabwe. In a pastoral letter to Zimbabwean Anglicans, issued on Christmas Eve, he writes:

"Cholera, hunger, HIV/AIDS, lack of health care, homelessness, unemployment, poverty, corruption, kidnappings, callousness, harassment, you name it. . . All these challenges rob us of an opportunity to have a meaningful and purposeful life.

"As I write, some families are nursing their relatives who are suffering from the effects of cholera expecting them to die any time, others stay indoors, unable to come out from their houses because of the unbearable stench of sewage flowing in front of their doorsteps, while still others are burying their dead. We hear of a horrific case where one family lost five children in 36 hours."

Dr Bakare describes it as "an ugly and horrendous situation". Such feelings of hopelessness and dejection can challenge faith in God, he acknowledges, but "can also lead us to deeper understanding of the helplessness, powerlessness, dejection, and pain that Jesus had to bear on our behalf". God has not abandoned Zimbabwe, and the Lord does not fail his chosen, he assures his people.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has renewed his attack on South Africa for its lack of action against Mr Mugabe, and repeated his call to the international community to remove him by force if he refuses to step down voluntarily. A "new doctrine of responsibility to protect" had to be invoked, he told BBC Radio 4 in an interview last week.

Mr Mugabe "needs to be warned, and his cronies must be warned that the world is not just going to sit by and do nothing," Dr Tutu said.

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