Twenty-one church leaders were arrested in Zimbabwe yesterday when they tried to deliver a petition to the police urging an end to its abuse of power.
The ministers from the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Dutch Reform, Presbyterian and Pentecostal churches were still being held last night.
Carrying three big wooden crosses, they walked through the streets of Harare to the police headquarters to deliver a petition urging ”immediate corrective measures to ensure that the police force in this country performs its duties with respect for the church and all citizens of Zimbabwe”.
As they approached they were surrounded by police officers in riot gear who sang ”It’s been a long time since you were beaten” in Shona, and banged batons on their truck.
The officers arrested the ministers and took them to the central charge office.
The petition accused the police of ”many cases of violence against people, pastors and clergy in this country”, and added: ”We find this misuse of police power completely objectionable and unacceptable.”
Since the beginning of the year more than a dozen people, including three MPs and a lawyer, have claimed that they have been tortured by the police.
The police have also held a high court judge in jail overnight.
The ministers called for a public apology from the police and an assurance that ”the present abuse by the police will stop forthwith”.
Pastor Joseph Munemo, secretary of the National Pastors Conference, described their arrest as ”very serious”.
”The police are provoking church leaders and trying to frighten us from carrying out our duties,” he said.
”We just wanted to hand over our petition.”
Bishop Trevor Manhanga said the arrests would ”strengthen the resolve of the church to stop police abuse of power.
”The police cannot cow the church into silence”.
Bishop Manhanga, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, was arrested two weeks ago when he tried to speak at a church function.
”We have not broken any law, we are just carrying out our role to be the conscience of the nation,” he said.
”We cannot be silent in the face of violence and torture. The church must be the ears for those who cannot hear, the eyes for those who cannot see and the voice of the voiceless.
”We are taking up our man date to call for a stop to this harassment and intimidation.”
In Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, the Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, an outspoken critic of the Mugabe government, was warned by the police at his cathedral offices not to make political statements in his sermons.
The warning was made after seven victims of alleged state-sponsored torture made statements at a service he conducted on Thursday night.
”They [the police] pointed out that the service should purely be of a religious nature and not mention aspects critical of government,” the archbishop said.
He said he had told the police that it was impossible to separate issues of hunger, economic hardship and violence from religion.
”If people are suffering the church cannot excuse itself.” – Guardian Unlimited Â