Harare, Zimbabwe, May 6, 2008 / 23:04 pm
A Catholic peace and justice commission in Zimbabwe has said that it will be impossible to hold a meaningful run-off election between President Robert Mugabe and challenger Morgan Tsvangirai if state-sponsored violence against innocent civilians does not stop.
The Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA) reports that the Zimbabwean Bishops Conference’s Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJPZ) has said that political partisanship among the police and violence from irregular and regular security forces have destabilized the country.
“There are country-wide reports of systematic violence in the form of assaults, murders, torture, abductions, intimidation and wanton destruction of property against innocent civilians whose alleged crime is to have voted ‘wrongly’,” the CCJPZ said in a Sunday statement.
According to Fides news agency, the teachers’ union in Zimbabwe has said they have been main targets of the violence that followed the March 29 election. Union representatives said that last week 133 teachers suffered assaults and 496 were interrogated on “electoral matters.” Over 1,700 teachers have left the country because of threats.