S.African Anglican Archbishop urges Mugabe to end blitz on poor

[Mugabe lied the other day... oops... sorry, I know he lies most of the time! I mean, he lied about pretending to stop smashing people's houses. He said he had stopped but in fact had not. Incidentally he did the same when he was running the White farmers off their land. He claimed he had stopped when in fact he had not. Its all just propaganda and lies. Jan]

Cape Town - Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane on Monday appealed to the Zimbabwean government to work with international humanitarian operations in its country.

"I appeal to the Zimbabwean government to facilitate international humanitarian operations within the country since it has limited capacity to address these needs fully at present," Ndungane said in a statement.

Reacting to the United Nations' report on human rights violations in Zimbabwe, Ndungane said Operation Murambatsvina had to be stopped immediately.

"I also appeal to President Mugabe and the Zimbabwe Government to stop the Operation immediately and to focus on rebuilding and reconstruction."

He said the Southern African Anglican Church has set up a relief fund for Zimbabweans affected by Operation Murambatsvina. It has donated R250 000 to start the fund off with.

"This money will be used for food and other basic necessities and there is ongoing research and discussion aimed at identifying the most effective means of distribution of this aid."

Ndungane said he supported the UN's condemnation of the people responsible for the so-called cleaning up operation. He was also all for the call for them to be brought to book, but his major concern was with the well-being of people "so terribly affected by this humanitarian crisis.

"In the short term, our concerns must be adequate food, water, shelter and healthcare and with these basics for human life the international community can be of much help."

He also supported the longer term recommendations in the UN report that the Zimbabwean government revive dialogue with all stakeholders.

Ndungane said when visiting Zimbabwe two years ago, Mugabe, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and representatives of civil society and churches agreed that there was no alternative to negotiations.

"I therefore call on all resourceful Zimbabweans to gather around the negotiating table and to work together to resolve their economic problems and political tensions."

He welcomed the South African government's undertaking to talk to the UN about its recommendations for Zimbabwe.

"I appeal to the international community to assist in any way possible to bring relief to those hundreds of thousands of affected people and to help work towards restoring their living conditions to acceptable standards." - Sapa

Source: Independent Online (IOL)

URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click...