Former Moderator of the Church of Scotland and current convenor of its World Mission Council, the Very Rev Dr John Chalmers said their church is ‘deeply disturbed’ by a brutal crackdown being waged against civil protesters in Zimbabwe.
In a proclamation, the Rev said it is time the chaos-torn country restore order and pay particular attention to the voices of its pregnable people.
‘We are deeply disturbed by the reports coming out of Zimbabwe and strongly endorse this statement issued by the Council of Churches in Zambia and other civil groups. It is time to restore order and to allow the voices of the most vulnerable to be heard,’ said Rev Chalmers.
The Church of Scotland urged the Scottish and UK Governments to respond to a call for help from the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ).
In an open letter for help, the CCZ, itself a partner church of the Church of Scotland said it was ‘disheartening’ that the international community was not doing more to help stem the violence in its neighbouring country.
‘Civil society in Zambia remains deeply concerned with the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe and the reported human rights violations against citizens of the state,’
it said.
‘The onus lies with President Mnangagwa to be all inclusive in finding a lasting solution to the many challenges that the country faces. It is disheartening to note that the terrible situation in Zimbabwe has not garnered the desired response, both regionally and internationally.
As civil society activists, we cannot sit idle while our neighbours are being beaten, arrested, detained and killed.
‘Zimbabwe deserves better from its leaders and the international community,’
wrote the CCZ.
Africa and Caribbean Secretary for the Church of Scotland, Jennie Chinembiri, said the World Mission Council also received a ‘disturbing and saddening’ report. The account of the situation was from another partner Church, the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, in which it said there was a ‘warlike feeling in the air’.
‘Perhaps the most shocking effect of the demonstrations and riots is the government’s reaction of shutting down the internet and social media sites for all,’ the Church said.
The Calvinist Church called for prayer as it admitted it was struggling to minister to its members in the face of the violence.
‘One of the hardest things for us ministers is how to minister to people at this time?
How to preach a message of hope in the face of the seeming hopelessness of our country? How to preach a message of comfort without sounding like ‘peace where there is no peace’? And how to help the people lament without leaving them in despair? Please do continue to hold us up in prayer,’
wrote the church.
Zimbabwe recently experienced a grim phase when an alarming number of its citizens were killed or assaulted. It was an effort by the state security to calm down commotion caused by the citizens. They had taken it to the streets to protest a steep increase in fuel prices that made its petrol the world’s most expensive.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said the clampdowns by the state security left twelve people dead, seventy-eight with gunshot wounds, two-hundred-and-forty-two with dog bites and 466+ people arrested and detained.
The abuses have not calmed despite President Mnangagwa denouncing the violence as “unacceptable” and “not the Zimbabwean way”. Members of the police and the military have of late reportedly accused of continuing to carry out arbitrary beatings, rapes, and abductions.
The government accuses the opposition of kindling up trouble and the army said uniformed perpetrators of abuses are “bogus elements” out to tarnish its image.
Intimidated residents in the working-class suburbs of Harare and Bulawayo are locking themselves in at night.
“We have received very disturbing reports of a number of cases of women allegedly raped by members of security forces. Beatings, harassment and other abuses, have continued after Mnangagwa’s return and there are no clear actions from the government to hold accountable those committing the abuses,”
said Dewa Mavhinga, Southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch.
Vendors in the city centre were being routinely rounded up by the military, beaten and dumped at police stations, another human rights lawyer Doug Coltart said.
Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba, however, said their units have received no reports of rape.
Dozens of civil society leaders, opposition figures and activists have gone into hiding, fearing for their lives, with some of them being arrested, detained and abducted, Amnesty International said in a statement. It noted reported rapes, “lethal force” against protesters and the targeting of health workers who treat victims.
“Children as young as 11 years old have been detained on frivolous charges,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty’s southern Africa director. “The authorities must immediately stop this merciless crackdown.”
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said arrests of suspected protesters continued, with many denied bail.
South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane has since threatened to jet into Zimbabwe to compile a human rights abuse dossier against President Mnangagwa and hand it over to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Maimane on Monday said efforts to pressure South African President and SADC chair Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene in the Zimbabwean crisis had not yielded results, hence the decision to refer Pres. Mnangagwa’s gross human rights abuses to the ICC and the UN.
“President Ramaphosa is mistaken to focus solely on the economic situation in Zimbabwe, while turning a blind eye to the dictator-like military clampdown on citizens, which has, to date, claimed the lives of at least 12 people.
Despite concerted pressure from the DA, President Ramaphosa and his government have failed to show leadership and intervene in what has now become a humanitarian crisis. It is vital that stability is restored in Zimbabwe and in the Southern African Development Community region,” he said.
The continued merciless crackdown of citizens by state security has since been cited as a major threat to efforts to bring President Mnangagwa and opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa to the negotiating table to resolve the current political and economic logjam.
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