ZIMBABWE: Churches targeted for political violence

-- Churches targeted for political violence.
-- The scandal of Nolbert Kunonga.
-- Bringing an end to power-sharing.

Churches targeted for political violence.

On Saturday 9 April, some 500 Christians -- including 4 bishops and 46 pastors from Harare, Mutare, Bulawayo and Gweru -- gathered in the Church of Nazarene in Glen Norah, a densely populated suburb of Harare, for a special 'Praying for Peace to Save Zimbabwe' church Service.

Their prayer for peace was shattered however, when a truckload of some 20 armed rioted police descended on the gathering. After firing tear gas into the church, the riot police stormed the sanctuary wielding batons and brandishing AK 47 rifles. Ironically, the organisers of the prayer service had also planned to commemorate the 11 March 2007 'Save Zimbabwe Prayer Rally' in which police shot one participant dead and arrested over 100. As with the March 2007 prayer rally, the April 2011 prayer service had been organised in response to a sharp escalation in political violence ahead of elections.

See: Police brutally disrupt prayer for peace
By Esther Gomo, Nehanda Radio, 11 April 2011.

According to Gomo, after the riot squad had emptied the church, they "went on to fire the tear gas canisters indiscriminately at several churches in the vicinity, as well as the general residential area around the church and Chitubu Shops.

"At the time of writing [11 April], 4 clergymen, including 2 Bishops (Bishop Paul Isaya and Bishop Paul Mukome – who heads the Church of Nazarene, Pastor Nemukuyu and Pastor Caroline Sanyanga) had been arrested. In addition 5 other congregates, including Shakespeare Mukoyi, who is also the Deputy Chairperson for Harare Youth Assembly in the Movement for Democratic Change Led by Morgan Tsvangirai, were also arrested.

"Several injuries were noted from the worshipers, and are being attended to at a local clinic."

Gomo also notes: "The church service was initially scheduled to be held at St Peters Kubatana Centre but congregates had to relocate after the Riot Squad barricaded the main entrance and refused access to worshipers. [. . .]

"The heavy-handed disruption of the church services is a shameful violation of the constitution of Zimbabwe, which allows for freedoms of religion and worship."

See also: Police violently suppress prayer for peace

According to Sokwanele's Zimbabwe Inclusive Government Watch: Issue 27 (25 May 2011), the "Zanu-PF has instructed the police to target church services and the clergy for their implicit opposition of President Mugabe’s violent, authoritarian rule".

Sokwanele reports that, only about a week after the attack on the "Praying for Peace" service, Father Mark Mkandla, a Catholic priest in Lupane, was arrested after a special church service organised to pray for national healing and reconciliation. Ft Mkandla delivered a powerful sermon against violence only to be subsequently arrested.

Insidiously, not only are church leaders are being offered land in exchange for loyalty, but officials from President Mugabe's Zanu (PF) have been using an anti-sanctions petition to split churches. Regime officials visit churches with the aim of forcing members of to sign the petition. Pastors who resist find their congregations split, with pro-Mugabe members being offered Zanu (PF) support to start new churches where Zanu (PF) slogans are chanted.

See: Party abuses churches --- Bishop
By Zwanai Sithole, The Zimbabwean, 17 May 2011

Yet as the Zimbabwean notes: "In reality there are no sanctions on Zimbabwe but restrictive measures on Mugabe and his cronies. Mugabe and his comrades are restricted from making shopping trips to London on the grounds of gross human rights violations."

Further to this, Zimbabwe's Deputy Minister of Education, Sports and Culture, Lazarus Dokora, has condemned unregistered schools and called on the police (a pro-Mugabe force) to investigate them.

Unregistered schools mushroomed in Zimbabwe during the economic meltdown, as striking, underpaid government teachers earned income by giving private classes. But what began as private classes, gradually developed into a network of unregistered independent schools and colleges, many of which are housed in churches.

Peter Chinyadza runs a school of some 50 students in Chitungwiza, some 30km south of Harare. While he is in the process of seeking registration, the school -- which operates out of All Saints Anglican Church -- is as yet unregistered and under investigation.

See: Govt descends on unregistered schools
By Pride Gonde, Newsday correspondent, Harare. 24 May 2011

Meanwhile, Zimbabwean Catholic bishops feel they have been undermined and the faithful have been scandalized by the Vatican's warm and friendly embrace of Mugabe at the 1 May beatification service of the late Pope John Paul II.

Gunther Simmermacher, editor of an independent South African Catholic journal, noted that no formal invitations were issued to heads of state, and "international diplomacy sometimes requires unpalatable things of its practitioners."

But as he notes: the "televised sight of the tyrant being warmly embraced by a broadly smiling prelate" was "embarrassing for the courageous bishops of Zimbabwe, and to the clergy, religious and laity who strive for a peaceful transition to an equitable and accountable democracy.

"Shortly before departing on his 'absolutely heavenly' Vatican sojourn, Mr. Mugabe described the Zimbabwean bishops as 'so-called men of God who lie' and 'mere puppets of Western countries. In that light particularly, Mr. Mugabe's reception in the Vatican has created an impression, surely inaccurate, that the Vatican sides with him against the bishops of Zimbabwe."

See: Catholic paper: Dictator's Vatican welcome undermined Zimbabwe bishops
Catholic News Service, 19 May 2011

The Scandal of Nolbert Kunonga

Just as Mugabe is violently confiscating white-owned farms in the name of 'indigenisation' and 'anti-colonialism', his thug-stooge bishop, Nolbert Kunonga is violently confiscating Anglican properties under the same pretence. Kunonga was defrocked by the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa in Nov 07 on the grounds of heresy, schism, and suspicion that he was complicit in the murders of ten Anglican clergy.

(For background see: 'We are being persecuted'. By Elizabeth Kendal for WEA RLC, 27 June 08)

Kunonga now controls 40 percent of all Zimbabwe's Anglican churches -- including 30 churches in Harare alone. The doors are unlocked on Sundays, but only to pro-Mugabe supporters who have torn down the colonial artefacts and broken up pews bearing memorial plaques. The overwhelming majority of Zimbabwe's Anglicans now worship in any facility that will open its doors to them.

Further to this, Kunonga's wife Agatha controls the Anglican Church of Zimbabwe Mother's Union (ACZMU) and she is forcing its members to sign the so-called anti-sanctions petition.

Anglicans suspect Nolbert Kunonga of complicity in the Feb 2011 murder of Jessica Mandeya (89), a lay leader in the rural parish of Mashonaland East who was raped, mutilated and strangled after she refused to join Kunonga's faction. Kunonga denies he had anything to do with the murder, retorting that if he was going to kill anyone, it would be his nemesis, Bishop Chad Gandiya, who was elected by the Anglican Church to replace Kunonga as Bishop of Harare.

According to Bishop Gandiya, five bishops are on Kunonga's hit list for "elimination".

"We're all being followed", said Julius Makono, the bishop of Manicaland, one of the five.

Godfrey Tawonezvi, bishop of Masvingo, another of the five, was recently visited by two of Kunonga's men. "They had all our phone numbers, our home addresses", he said.

See: Mugabe Ally Escalates Push to Control Anglican Church
By Celia W. Dugger, New York Times. 29 May 2011

ALSO: Zimbabwe's Anglicans forced to worship in pubs
By Peta Thornycroft, Harare and Aislinn Laing in Johannesburg.
The Telegraph, 25 Mar 2011

Bringing an end to power-sharing

Mugabe has recently called for early elections in order to end the power-sharing government, in spite of the fact that the "Global Political Agreement" (the power-sharing agreement stitched together by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) after the 2008 elections) mandates that before the next elections can be held, a new constitution must be approved by referendum, and a new voter registry must be drawn up. It is unlikely these conditions will be met because the police, the judiciary and the Zimbabwe Election Commission are all partisan and rule of law has collapsed.

See: How Zanu-PF plans to steal the Zimbabwe elections
British-South African journalist and historian RW Johnson discusses Zimbabwe's grossly rigged electoral register. 29 May 2011

RW Johnson writes: "Despite clear and binding international agreements to the contrary, evidence now available shows that President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF is again planning to steal the next elections with the help of a grossly rigged electoral register."

According to Johnson, Zimbabwe's electoral register, drawn up by outspoken Zanu-PF supporter Tobaiwa Mudede, "was notoriously full of dead and fictional voters - who always voted Zanu-PF." Johnson writes that Mugabe has always maintained the register is a 'state secret'. When an NGO did manage to secure a copy, it was found to contain at least twice as many voters as was plausible. Despite this, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has never upheld any complaint against the register.

See also: S. African Institute Calls for a New Zimbabwe Voters Roll Before Elections
Voice of America, 30 May 2011.

As far as Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba is concerned, the Zanu (PF) will win the next elections and "ensure stability".

VOA reports: "Prime Minister Tsvangirai immediately condemned Nyikayaramba’s remarks, saying such utterances put the country in an 'unnecessary war mode' and clearly show that elements in the military want to usurp civilian authority.

"Retired Zimbabwe National Army officer Martin Rupiya, director of the African Public Policy and Research Institute, told VOA reporter Blessing Zulu that Nyikayaramba’s remarks show that the service chiefs remain intransigently partisan.

"Political commentator Bhekilizwe Ndlovu called Nyikayaramba’s statements reckless."

Farmer reportedly crucified in Ivory Coast

On 30 May 2011, Ivorian.net published a piece by César Etou who reports that on Saturday 28 May, pro-Ouattara gunmen crucified a farmer in Ivory Coast village of Binkro, Oumé Subprefecture, Central-western Ivory Coast.

The militants reportedly nailed the poor peasant's hands and feet to a plank in the form of cross as "the example of Christ". According to sources, UN forces called to the rescue arrived too late to save the man.

Représailles contre les populations Un paysan crucifié à Oumé
Notre Voie-30 May 2011

UPDATE: Christian advocacy group Barnabas Fund (BF) reported on 8 June that actually two men had been crucified -- peasant brothers Raphael Aka Kouame and Kouassi Privat Kacou. Both men were accused of hiding weapons and savagely beaten before being crudely nail to crosses with steel spikes despite their pleas of innocence.

According to the BF report, Ouattara’s men subsequently conducted an extensive search of Binkro but found only a store of medical equipment and supplies, which they looted. Despite there being no evidence of weapons, the seriously wounded pair were then taken to prison in Oumé, where Raphael died in the night.

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If this seems unbelievable, I recommend the Human Rights Watch report:

Côte d’Ivoire: Gbagbo Supporters Tortured, Killed in Abidjan
Rampant Reprisals by Pro-Ouattara Forces Mar New Presidency
2 June 2011

This report details numerous gross human rights abuses committed by pro-Ouattara militia: ethnic cleansing, torture, rapes, summary executions, mass graves . . .

Human Rights Watch is calling for Pres. Ouattara to end the impunity.

Ivory Coast: Darkness & terror; Freemasonry link; Watching Ghana.

Darkness and terror

Below are a few youtube clips that reveal something of the nature of the pro-Ouattara forces that have seized control of Ivory Coast.

1) This footage dates back to 2002. It shows pro-Ouattara, northern New Forces rebels at their base in Bouake. Though they had failed to capture all of Ivory Coast, they celebrate their seizure of the north with the ritual slaughter of an Ivorian constable, in the presence of French troops.

Sources report that when the rebels were confronted with this footage, they acknowledged that the constable was indeed ritually slaughtered. However they claimed to have later used their occult powers to resuscitate him.

2) This excellent, highly informative site has been set up to provide information on Ivory Coast's Presidential Conflict.

In the CBN film clip dated 8 April 2011, Gary Lane interviews missions Pastor Ted Jensen. This film clip contains truly horrific footage of civilians (allegedly members of predominantly Christian tribes that support Laurent Gbagbo) being kicked and shoved into a fiery mass grave where they can be seen burning to death.
UPDATE/CORRECTION: it is been pointed out that while pro-Gbagbo supporters have been burned alive in Ivory Coast, this footage is not from Ivory Coast March-April 2011. While people can be heard crying 'Allahu Akhbar' in the background, the footage is also on the internet as witch-burning in Kisii Nyamataro, Kenya, 2009.

In the CNN film clip dated 14 April 2011, Laurent Gbagbo's step daughter, US-based lawyer Marie-Antoinette Singleton, defends Gbagbo, explains the election fraud and talks about the terror gripping native and non-Muslim Ivorians.

The speeches and press conferences by U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, are excellent value.

The Freemasonry link

The following article -- written to explain why so many francophone African presidents are supporting neo-colonial France vis-a-vis African nationalist Laurent Gbagbo -- exposes the role Freemasonry plays in the perpetuation of exploitative and criminal neo-colonialism in Africa.

According to the author, "It is impossible to understand how Françafrique works without reference to the Masons."

West African Leaders On The Square Against Gbagbo
By Dr. Gary K. Busch, for ocnus.net 5 Jan 2011

Busch writes: "The French Masons represent the elite of French business and politics. [. . .] Freemason lodges maintain a formidable, covert influence within the French judicial and police structures. [. . .]

"Just as in France, Freemasonry is ubiquitous at the very top in many African states. Denis Sassou Nguesso, the Congolese president, is Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Congo Brazzaville linked to the National Grand Lodge of France; President Mamadou Tanja of Niger; Chad's Idriss Deby and Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic are among at least twelve African presidents linked to the Masons. In November 2009 Ali Bongo, the new Gabonese President was ordained as the grand master of the Grand Lodge of Gabon (GLB) and the Grand Equatorial Rite, the two predominant Freemason orders in Gabon.

"In Congo-Brazzaville, both the current president, Denis Sassou Nguesso, and the former president, Pascal Lissouba, are freemasons, although they belong to different chapters of the order. Mr Lissouba is an initiate of the Grand Orient of France while Mr Sassou Nguesso belongs to a Senegalese lodge affiliated to the French Grand National Lodge. Most of these African presidents, but not exclusively, are francophone: Paul Biya, president of Cameroon , Blaise Campaore, president of Burkina Faso; Robert Guei, former head of Cote d'Ivoire; John Kuffuor, former president of Ghana, to name but a few. There are scores more at Cabinet level and who are staffing African regional organisations and banks.

"The Masons have always provided the leaders and the staff of French colonialism. . ."

Busch protests the Colonial Pact by which means France maintains control over the economies of the African states. "It took possession of their foreign currency reserves; it controlled the strategic raw materials of the country; it stationed troops in the country with the right of free passage; it demanded that all military equipment be acquired from France; it took over the training of the police and army; it required that French businesses be allowed to maintain monopoly enterprises in key areas (water, electricity, ports, transport, energy, etc.). France not only set limits on the imports of a range of items from outside the franc zone but also set minimum quantities of imports from France. These treaties are still in force and operational."

According to Busch, this immoral, exploitative Colonial Pact endures because, "Unlike in ordinary democracies, the French version of democracy is a special case. By tradition in France, foreign affairs are the French president's private domain. The foreign affairs minister only applies his policies. France is the only Western country where foreign policy is not a debating topic in the national legislative bodies. The sovereignty of the French people does not count for anything even if it has elected the president directly. The Parliament has no checking powers and is quietly relegated to domestic matters."

Watching Ghana

While both President Ouattara and Prime Minister Soro have cleared Ghana of providing military aid to pro-Gbagbo forces during the conflict, PM Soro is now accusing Ghana of providing refuge to pro-Gbagbo subversives.

However, Ghana President John Evans Atta Mills "has assured the international community that Ghana will not allow any group of persons who have wicked intentions to use the country as a base to cause mayhem in Cote d'Ivoire".
See: Ghana can't be used to destabilize Cote d'Ivoire - Mills
Ghanaweb 17 May 2011

Soro's New Forces warn Ghana
The Statesman, 18/05/2011

"In spite of assurances this week from President JEA Mills to the outgoing pro-Gbagbo Ivorian ambassador to Ghana, Emmanuel Auguste Ackah, that Ghana 'will not tolerate any group of persons to use Ghana as a base to create trouble for our neighbours,' les Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire (the New Forces), the main military force in the Republican Forces which led the recent military action to overthrow Laurent Gbagbo has accused Ghana of hosting pro-Gbagbo men who are allegedly planning to destabilize Cote d'Ivoire.

"President Mills' denial of rebel activities in Ghana was in direct response to a report in pro-Ouattara newspaper, Le Patriote, last week. But, this subsequent accusation from the feared New Forces raises serious regional security issues for Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire."

[NOTE: Guillaume Soro is Ivory Coast's Prime Minister, Defence Minister and head of the Republican Forces army which overthrew Gbagbo. He also controls the "feared" New Forces rebel coalition that fought against the south in the 2002 Civil War. The New Forces have recently been incorporated into the Republican Forces under Soro's command.]

According to Soro, pro-Gbagbo forces sheltering in Ghana are preparing a counter-coup. While daring them to imagine themselves overthrowing Pres. Ouattara, he warns that should any attempt be made to destabilise Ouattara's government they will meet "their worst nightmare", adding that it would also be "suicidal for any nation that supports this path".

"The New Forces warn that Ghana would 'inevitably get its fingers burnt,' if it continues to fail to act against the alleged subversive activities."