Iden Wetherell
Zimbabwes public watchdog, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, risks losing its bite as the countrys bishops, anxious to appease President Robert Mugabe, attempt to muzzle it.
The commission built a formidable reputation snapping at the heels of Ian Smiths rebel Rhodesian regime in the 1970s. It exposed atrocities committed by security forces against villagers suspected of aiding nationalist guerrillas and fearlessly denounced the countrys white minority rulers.
But while some Catholic bishops such as Umtalis Donal Lamont were a thorn in the side of Smiths government, others were profoundly conservative and privately deplored the commissions political role.
After independence in 1980 the commission maintained a vigilant watch over human rights abuses and drew the worlds attention to the grisly rampage of Mugabes Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland where thousands of innocent civilians were killed in the mid-1980s.
But the bishops, angered by the decision of the commission in July to approve publication of Breaking the Silence, a chilling report on the killings co- authored by the commission and the Legal Resources Foundation, have moved to stifle their vocal rights monitor.
Meeting at Hwange, 330km north-west of Bulawayo, last month, the Catholic Bishops Conference abruptly terminated the partnership between the commission and the foundation, an independent advisory service.
The bishops were stung by publication of the report before Mugabe had responded to it. They were also unhappy with the commissions director, Mike Auret, for launching a joint appeal with the foundation for donor support in establishing a reconciliation trust to channel development assistance to Matabeleland.
The bishops have now decided to set up programmes for affected communities in Matabeleland answerable solely to the bishops conference, Bishop Patrick Mutume curtly wrote in a letter to the foundation.
Mugabe (73) comes from a devout Catholic background. Despite an attachment to Marxism, he appears to be returning in old age to his religious roots. And now that it occupies a semi-official role, the Catholic hierarchy appears anxious not to rock the boat of church-state relations.
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