WCC-backed Mugabe puts Zimbabwe in bloodbath By John H. Adams The Presbyterian Layman Volume 33, Number 3 Posted May 22, 2000 Marxist Robert Mugabe, who has long had the moral and financial support of the World Council of Churches and the Presbyterian Church (USA), has unleashed a veritable war in Zimbabwe against white farm owners and their black employees. Mugabe appearing before the World Council of Churches in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1998. More than 600 farms have been under attack by government-backed squatters, who have murdered and beaten farmers and workers, set afire farm buildings and added to a national panic and economic crisis. Mugabe’s own high court ordered squatters off the land and reasonable government payment for property being confiscated from white farmers. But Mugabe defied that order and went on government television to declare white farmers as the “enemies of the state.” A few hours after that announcement, two sisters were brutally raped by squatters on their farm. Ally self-named ‘Hitler’ Mugabe’s ally in the latest violence is Chenjerai Hunzvi, a Polish-trained physician and chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association. Hunzvi has given himself the nickname “Hitler.” Mugabe came to power 20 years ago in a violent coup. The WCC, of which the PCUSA is one of the largest financial supporters, gave financial ($85,000) and moral encouragement to Mugabe’s Patriotic Front, whose Soviet- and Cuban-trained guerrillas overthrew the biracial regime of what was formerly known as Rhodesia. According to Time and Newsweek, Mugabe’s guerrillas murdered Catholic and Pentecostal missionaries as well as Rhodesians defending the former regime. Those in the WCC and PCUSA who have long supported Mugabe have expressed little outrage about the Zimbabwean president’s current actions. Dr Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the WCC, was quoted by Ecumenical News International as saying that recent developments gave the impression of a “massive breakdown” of the rule of law. “Combined with the already tense economic situation, they appear to threaten widespread chaos,” Raiser said. But Raiser did not criticize Mugabe by name. Diane Knippers, the president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, told The Presbyterian Layman that the World Council of Churches and others who “helped put Robert Mugabe in power” have a “particular obligation … to insist that he observe fundamental human rights. Integrity demands that.” Pastor rebukes Mugabe An Anglican pastor in Zimbabwe minced few words. In a letter sent by a group calling itself “The Revival of African Conscience,” the Rev. Tim Neill of Harare told Mugabe, “If you don’t repent, then you are applying for an early passport to hell.” In 1999, at its 50th anniversary meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, the World Council of Churches gave Mugabe a center stage and its leaders continued to applaud his government. The Presbyterian Church (USA), which has contributed more money to the council than any other U.S. denomination, has never repudiated the council’s approval of Mugabe’s leadership. Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, is the leader of the Presbyterian delegation to the body. Black workers on the farms are being attacked as viciously as the owners. Including their family members, an estimated one million blacks work and live on the farms. Besides wages, most farm owners provide education assistance, medical services and land for employees and their families to raise crops. Many of the attacks have political objectives beyond land redistribution. Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF Party faces opposition from the six-month-old Movement for Democratic Change.

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