Catholics urge SA to intervene in Zimbabwe refugee crisis

Catholics urge SA to intervene in Zimbabwe refugee crisis

ZIMBABWEANS packed on a Beitbridge-bound train being deported from South Africa. It is believed at least 2 million Zimbabweans now live in South Africa alone

• Zimbabwean migrants just want to feed families

• 5 Zimbabweans drown trying to enter SA

• UK cracks down on sham marriages

• Church lobbies SA on asylum

• Botswana defends flogging of aliens

By Patrick Leeman

THE Roman Catholic bishops of Southern Africa have called on the South African government to intervene urgently in the refugee crisis facing South Africa.

The bishops said after their conference at Mariannhill near Durban on Wednesday that the Zimbabwean situation of "starvation and malnutrition, willful political violence and intimidation", and the "immoral" use of food aid by the Zimbabwean government demanded stronger and transparent intervention by African governments through the African Union.

"With more than three million people displaced as a result of the crisis in Zimbabwe, a generation of exiles and refugees has been created," they said.

We revealed recently that despite over two million Zimbabweans fleeing to South Africa, ONLY ELEVEN have been granted asylum.

The bishops, who represent five million Catholics in the region, said the international community should take strong measures to ensure a "meaningful and honest" election in Zimbabwe in 2005.

'A generation of exiles and refugees has been created'
It was essential that there should be sustained, independent, international and regional monitoring of the pre-election process as a prerequisite for validating the election itself.

Archbishop Buti Tihagale, the Archbishop of Johannesburg, said the South African government was not helping the churches and the non-governmental organisations to care for refugees.

He estimated that 75 percent of the population of Joubert Park, Hillbrow and Berea in Johannesburg were immigrants from neighbouring countries.

The archbishop said the churches could offer spiritual support, but did not have the resources for material assistance.

The bishops called on the Southern African Development Community governments, the African Union and the United Nations to consider "targeted sanctions" in both Zimbabwe and the Sudan, to prevent further suffering.

They said they had personally witnessed atrocities during recent visits to Sudan.

Tihagale said all Catholic medical staff should insist on their constitutional rights respecting their freedom of conscience, and refuse to co-operate in abortions in South Africa.

He said the bishops were "deeply disturbed" by the proposal that the new Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill sought to extend to nurses the right to destroy "innocent life through even more freely available abortions".

"We note with great sadness that 330 000 innocent human lives have been destroyed since the Abortion Act came into operation in 1997," the bishops said.

"How can the country possibly regenerate its moral fibre if it continues to widen and facilitate the destruction of unborn life?" they asked.
Mercury
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com