wfn.org | WCC NEWS: CORRECTION - Zimbabwean student leader asks for relief aid, postponed election

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 24/06/2008 18:07:06

ZIMBABWE NEEDS URGENT RELIEF AID, POSTPONE RUN-OFF ELECTION SAYS YOUNG  ECUMENICAL LEADER
EDITORS: Changes in paragraphs 6 (two cities added), 7 (first two  sentences reworded) and 9 (extended quote).

Free high-resolution photo available, see below

Zimbabwe's run-off presidential election should be postponed, according to  a young leader of the country's Student Christian Movement, who is in  Switzerland to request the churches support for addressing the humanitarian  crisis in the South African country.

Prosper Munatsi, the general secretary of the Student Christian Movement  of Zimbabwe, had hoped to visit Geneva last week to offer his testimony  about the unfolding political and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe at the  UN Human Rights Council. Instead he was jailed before his departure from  Zimbabwe after the Harare Ecumenical Centre, where several Christian  groups have their offices, was raided by Zimbabwe police and security  forces on 9 June.

His prison experience and first-hand knowledge of the situation in  Zimbabwe is causing him to call for the elections to be postponed and for  some form of international intervention.

Although he had been imprisoned for a longer period before, his 24-hour  stay in jail last week "was terrifying", says Munatsi. In addition to the  intimidation and reports about people being killed while in detention, the  place was not "suitable for human habitation", he says. There was no  water, electricity or blankets and detainees had to sleep "on the cold  floor" in the middle of winter.

Munatsi's depiction of the Harare prison where he and several other  members of Christian organizations were detained resembles a snapshot of  the country's situation. "The violence is really out of hand", says  Munatsi. If before it affected mainly rural areas, now it has spread "all  over the country". The lack of food is "really critical", with half the  population, including close to 2 million children "facing starvation".

To request support from ecumenical organizations and churches is one of  the main purposes of Munatsi's short visit to Geneva, Basel and Bern. The  humanitarian crisis asks for the churches' urgent intervention. In  addition to the food problem, close to 40,000 people have been internally  displaced and lack pretty much everything, including access to health care  facilities. Local churches are doing their best, but have run out of  resources. "The extension of the crisis is such that they can no longer  help, house, feed people."

>Mugabe cannot kill all the Zimbabweans

As the people of Zimbabwe have tried everything in their power to achieve  a non-violent, democratic and peaceful solution to the crisis, Munatsi  says, the churches efforts have not been limited to humanitarian aid.  "They are very much willing to observe the election", but the government  of President Robert Mugabe maintains that "churches should limit themselves  to the pulpit", he explains. By not allowing them to appoint electoral  observers, "the churches' democratic rights have been denied".

Are Zimbabweans disappointed with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who  withdrew from the upcoming election, somewhat preventing them to exercise  their right to vote? "No, we are not", says Munatsi. "It was the right  thing to do, because it valued the lives of Zimbabwean people first,  before any political ambition."

Right now, the election observers sent by the international community "are  observing the killings", points out Munatsi. Under the current conditions,  the election "must be postponed" and the "international community must  intervene to stop this violence and madness, and the war that has been  waged against the innocent and defenceless people of Zimbabwe". Munatsi  thinks that "peace monitors" should be deployed and mechanisms put in  place "to create an environment conducive to free and fair elections".

Having been imprisoned twice in the last two months, Munatsi is traveling  back home to occupy his place as leader of an ecumenical organization of  young Christians which cannot keep a register of its approximately 3,000  members for fear of political repression. Waiting for him in Harare are  offices where the furniture has disappeared, materials have been confiscate d and computers stolen, leaving the organization's staff with neither  place nor means to work.

But Munatsi is not afraid of going back. "Mugabe cannot kill the whole of  Zimbabweans", he says. "We need to be brave enough and work for the  people" so they can live free and "enjoy their Godly given rights".

>[669 words]

Audio excerpts of this interview at:

http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/sounds/2008/prosper_munat si.mp3

Free high-resolution photo of Prosper Munatsi: http://oikoumene.org/fileadmin/images/wcc-main/news/2008/june/DSC_3152x.jpg

See also the WCC press release of 24 June 2008: 
"World ecumenical bodies request international community to scale up  efforts in Zimbabwe"
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1722/world-e cumenical-bodies-r.html

WCC invitation to pray for Zimbabwe:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1722/pray-fo r-zimbabwe-wcc-in.html

>WCC member churches in Zimbabwe:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=4654

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363media@wcc -coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness  and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of  churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,  Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million  Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman  Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from  the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.