Zimbabwe: dictatorship: Drive Out Trash!, says Mugabe in displacing 1.5 million poor

Operation Murambatsvina, which translates to "Drive Out Trash," is Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's answer to the needs of the poor in his country. Sustained by parliamentary elections that were widely regarded as coercive and undemocratic, Mugabe has proceeded literally to drive out of their shanty-town dwellings a mass of Zimbabeweans and "may have left more than 1.5 million people without homes and livelihoods, according to United Nations officials."

Being a Catholic and being Jesuit-educated, Mugabe has become subject to the heavy criticism of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in his country.

"A whole nation has suffered because of recent and ongoing actions.

"Now, almost four weeks after the event, countless numbers of men, women with babies, children of school age, the old and the sick, continue to sleep in the open air at winter temperatures near to freezing." ....

"Any claim to justify this operation becomes totally groundless in view of the cruel and inhumane means that have been used," they said. "We condemn the gross injustice done to the poor."

The churchmen, led by Archbishop Robert Ndlovu of Harare and Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, attacked self-styled Christians in the government who "lead a double way of life, one for Sunday services in church and another for public tasks, be they political, economic, social or any other kind".

President Mugabe, 81, regularly attends mass, but the pastoral letter did not mention the name of the Jesuit-educated leader. The Catholic leaders added: "Innate human dignity given to us by the Creator Himself was gravely violated by the ruthless manner in which the operation was conducted and... cries out for vengeance to God."

If the united panel of archbishops and bishops feel this way, why don't they now ex-communicate Mugabe? Attending mass is one thing, as I understand the matter, but taking Holy Communion in the Eucharistic Liturgy is another. If Mugabe's sin is so great, then the mere public ban on him receiving the sacrament may have the result of shaking his conscience alive again. As it is, he is a crusty old autocrat who imagines himself to be of such godlike powers, just short of his Maker, that the Church's intervention, denying him what Catholics consider the means of grace and the forgiveness of sins, seems the only pastoral remedy that has any chance, however small, of working to call this man back to his duties.

It won't do anything for the poor he has displaced, so world relief organizations will have to stand by, hoping someone has the guts to replace the tyrant and let them in to the country to assist yet another innocent circle of the damned in Africa. Mugabe has to go! - Owlb

Mugabe's wrecking crew hits urban areas of supporters of his opposition, Movement for Democratic Change