Zimbabwean church leaders: Opposition voters targeted for torture

Published: 2008-04-23

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- Zimbabwe's Christian leaders have called for international intervention in the country's crisis, saying that those accused of voting for the opposition in March 29 elections are being tortured, abducted and murdered. "We warn the world that if nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and other hot spots in Africa and elsewhere," said the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe in an April 22 statement from the capital, Harare. Noting that they recently "issued statements commending Zimbabweans for the generally peaceful and politically mature manner in which they conducted themselves before, during and soon after the elections," the leaders said recent reports from their churches throughout the country gave cause for alarm.

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