Zimbabwean archbishop says he's ready to die in defense of people

Published: 2005-06-24

LONDON (CNS) -- Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo said he would rather die than stay silent in the face of widespread human rights abuses in his country. "I am ready to stand before a gun and be shot," Archbishop Ncube told Britain's Channel 4 News in an interview from Vatican City. The archbishop, a longtime critic of President Robert Mugabe, said the president should be arrested and tried before an international court for destroying shantytowns and leaving some 275,000 poor Zimbabweans homeless in an attempt to force the residents to return to rural areas. Mugabe's Operation Drive Out Trash has been widely condemned by Zimbabwean church leaders and the international community. Archbishop Ncube's interview with the television station came after the African Union rejected calls from Britain and the United States to intervene in the crisis.

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