Church leaders in Zimbabwe attempted on Monday to head off a rift over a church report on the nation’s political and economic turmoil after priests of the Jesuit order alleged the report, issued last month, was censored by government agents.
The Roman Catholic Bishops Conference said in a statement on Monday there were misunderstandings over the report, calling for a new ”national vision” and reconciliation and national dialogue to heal conflict in the nation and ease deepening economic woes. Officials denied the document was ”compromised”.
But Jesuit priests said in their monthly newsletter differences appeared in drafts of the report that were issued in final form as a national discussion paper at a prayer gathering attended by President Robert Mugabe on October 27.
The Jesuits cited several passages they said were watered down.
Referring to sweeping security and media laws, ”oppressive laws” in the original became ”contentious laws”.
On political and election violence blamed largely on ruling party militants and government agents since 2000, the Jesuits said in the original, church leaders noted that Zimbabwe’s rulers had a ”tendency to label anyone who criticises the dominant view as an enemy” of the state.
”That was too strong for the censors,” said the Jesuit newsletter. Also, any reference to election violence was eliminated.
In later passages in the ”official” version, some references to rights violations and paragraphs on freedom of association and freedom of speech and expression were deleted.
”Who would have an interest in leaving out those paragraphs? Everything points in one direction,” said the Jesuits.
The official text handed over to Mugabe at the October prayer ceremony claimed churches praised efforts by the government to re-house people left homeless in a slum clearance operation in 2005.
”This is a figment of the censors’ imagination. It is a blatant lie,” said the Jesuit newsletter.
Most of the estimated 700 000 people who lost their homes and livelihoods in Operation Murambatsvina, or ‘Clear Out Trash’ in the local Shona language, are still homeless or destitute.
The 42-page report given to Mugabe, entitled The Zimbabwe We Want: Towards a National Vision, was published by the Catholic Bishops Conference, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Fellowship.
Some leaders of those groups have been accused of openly backing the government and the ruling party.
In Monday’s statement, those three groups said their document aimed to open debate in the troubled former regional breadbasket, now suffering 1 070% inflation, the highest in the world, and acute shortages of food, hard currency and imports during the worst economic crisis since independence in 1980.
”Questions have been asked: Who wrote this document? It would indeed be disturbing if the state felt it could dictate the churches’ agenda. The discussion document is a church initiative,” they said.
They said there were eight drafts of the document during its compilation, some having been leaked to outsiders.
”Where there is talk there is hope. However, the church understands that the dissemination process still has to earn credibility through broad consultations and participation,” they said. — Sapa-AP