Anglican African bishops call for pressure on Mugabe

AFP reports:

African Anglican bishops on Friday urged regional leaders to put pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to accept disputed poll results, ahead of a special summit in Zambia.

The bishops said leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), who will meet to discuss Zimbabwe's poll crisis on Saturday should "prevail upon" Mugabe to accept the results of the election.

After a meeting in Pretoria, bishops from Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia noted "with sadness" delays in announcing results of the presidential poll.

"We are concerned that this situation has given rise to rumour and uncertainty which are bound to fuel despondency, tension and social upheaval," the SAPA news agency quoted the clerics as saying.

Read it all here.

In a brief statement on Tuesday from inside Zimbabwe, the Bishop of Harare, Dr Sebastian Bakare said, "We remain hopeful that change will indeed come, even though not as swiftly as we had hoped."

Posted by John B. Chilton on April 11, 2008 1:06 PM | |
Comments (1)

This is good news; naturally the "bad bishop of Harare," Nolbert Kunonga, is not part of it.

There's a petition going around:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/democracy_for_zimbabwe/97.php

Robert Mugabe's government has withheld the results of the national elections--and threatens to use violence and fraud to hold on to power.

Mugabe has resisted international pressure--but South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, who has Mugabe's ear, might listen. A global outcry is needed to ensure that Mbeki knows his status as a global and regional leader is on the line: the world is turning to him to help bring justice for the people of Zimbabwe.

This petition will be delivered through diplomatic channels, media--and an event on Wednesday, April 16, when Mbeki travels to the United Nations to chair a special meeting of the UN Security Council.

Posted by ginny gibbs [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 11, 2008 7:20 PM

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