Weekly anb05318.txt #8

[anb-bia <anb-bia@village.uunet.be>]

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 31-05-2001      PART #8/8

* Zambia. "A Reminder to us of our own fragility in faith"  -  The 
following is a Statement by the Catholic Bishops in Zambia on the defection 
of the former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo from the Catholic Church. "We, 
the Catholic Bishops in Zambia are deeply saddened and pained by the 
defection of Archbishop Milingo in his attempt to marry in the Moon Sect. 
For a long time we have tried to reach out to Archbishop Milingo, who has 
unfortunately rejected our regular and honest advice. Other people in the 
Church, including the Holy Father, have tried to reach out to him, but he 
took this advice as a form of persecution. In spite of all the efforts made 
by us and others, he decided to go on with his plan to marry, thereby 
turning his back on the Catholic Church. By doing this, the former 
Archbishop has put himself outside the Catholic Church. This implies that 
he is no longer a Bishop nor part of the Catholic Church. The former 
Archbishop has betrayed his vows by attempting marriage while still under 
his priestly commitments. The defection of the former Archbishop should not 
come as a surprise to us. Even among the apostles one of them did fall. His 
act portrays his failure to abide by sound apostolic tradition, which 
suddenly induced him not to perceive the advice from so many and not to 
discern the truth. He rather portrayed the others as not understanding his 
actions. We feel deep sympathy for the many people who put their trust in 
the former Archbishop and now feel betrayed and abandoned by his action. A 
challenge for them now is to make a right choice by committing themselves 
to follow Jesus Christ, who has the words of eternal life, rather than 
anyone else. The action by the former archbishop is a reminder to us of our 
own fragility in faith. It should therefore make us humble. Left to 
ourselves, without deep faith in Christ, we remain fragile and open to sin. 
However, the defection of any one of us does not change the Church of Jesus 
Christ, as it continues to bring His teaching and sacraments to the world. 
Finally, we invite all Christians to continue praying for the former 
Archbishop in the hope that he will decide to repent and come back to the 
Church".   (Bishops of Zambia, 29 May 2001)

* Zambia. Chief Justice to probe ministers over graft  -  On 29 May, Chief 
Justice Matthews Ngulube said he would appoint a tribunal to investigate 
allegations of corruption against three ministers. The ministers are 
alleged to have used 2 billion kwacha ($700,000) meant for road repairs to 
finance elections within the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy in 
April. Those involved are Finance Minister Katele Kalumba, Home Affairs 
Minister Peter Machungwa and Works and Supply Minister Godden Mandandi. The 
case is a major embarrassment to President Frederick Chiluba, who is still 
trying to reunite the country after a divisive campaign by his supporters 
to keep him in office beyond the legal mandate of 10 years, which expires 
later this year. The case is already being probed by the Anti-Corruption 
Commission, which does not have prosecution powers, at the request of 
Speaker of the National Assembly Amusaa Mwanamwambwa. The tribunal will 
determine whether the ministers breached the parliamentary and ministerial 
code of conduct in their handling of the cash. They will lose their 
parliamentary seats and cabinet posts if they are found guilty, law experts 
said.   (CNN, USA, 29 May 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Le problème des expropriations  -  Le 24 mai, les fermiers 
blancs et des financiers privés associés ont proposé de donner un million 
d'hectares de surfaces agricoles pour qu'elles soient distribuées à des 
familles noires sans terre, dans l'espoir de sortir de l'impasse sur le 
projet agraire. Le groupe qui s'est baptisé "Initiative conjointe pour le 
repeuplement du Zimbabwe", a affirmé que ces terres étaient immédiatement 
disponibles, promettant que les fermiers aideraient les familles concernées 
par leurs conseils techniques et leur matériel. Il a aussi promis que le 
Syndicat des fermiers blancs (CFU), qui représente quelque 4.500 personnes, 
abandonnerait toutes les poursuites judiciaires contre le gouvernement 
concernant les projets d'expropriation de 3.000 fermes appartenant à des 
Blancs. L'offre a été soumise au vice-président Joseph Msika, président de 
la commission gouvernementale de repeuplement.   (AP, USA, 24 mai 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Moving to break deadlock over land  -  A group calling itself 
the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative said on 17 May it had offered 
the government 1m hectares of uncontested white-owned farmland for 
resettlement in an effort to break a deadlock over seizure of farm land. 
The group says 20,000 families could be resettled on the land offered while 
it would provide Z$60m (US$1m) in finance to support resettlement. Tim 
Henwood, president of the Commercial Farmers Union, was not at the meeting 
but Nick Swanepoel, a former president of the CFU who tried to oust Mr 
Henwood earlier this year, was. Also there was Greg Brackenridge, Zimbabwe 
chief executive of the Standard Bank of South Africa, which is supporting 
the initiative. The group also proposed the creation of a Z$1.375bn 
revolving fund to help fund resettlement. It is to launch an international 
public relations campaign to demonstrate that Zimbabweans are solving the 
land problem internally. Observers are puzzled by both the timing and 
content of the initiative. In April, President Robert Mugabe announced that 
the government had already resettled 70,000 families on 2.8m hectares of 
land. It is not clear how the offer of 1m hectares of "uncontested land", 
some of which has already been taken over by the state -- will get the 
government to change its mind on the compulsory acquisition, without 
compensation, of 5m hectares. Joseph Made, agriculture minister, has 
repeatedly ruled out fresh negotiations with farmers on the issue and in 
the last few weeks the government has continued to list new farms for 
takeover, including corporately-owned fruit, flower, tea and coffee 
estates.   (Financial Times, UK, 25 May 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Second minister dies in a car crash  -  Zimbabwe president 
Robert Mugabe's government has been thrown into disarray by the death of 
the defence minister, Moven Mahachi, the second cabinet minister to die in 
a car accident in the past month. Mr Mahachi, 53, was killed late on the 
afternoon of 26 May in a car accident in Zimbabwe's eastern mountain 
district of Nyanga. He had been one of Mr Mugabe's longest serving and most 
trusted allies. In 1975 he helped Mr Mugabe escape Rhodesian authorities by 
sneaking across the eastern border to Mozambique. Robert Mugabe was so 
shaken by Mr Mahachi's death that he cancelled a trip to Indonesia where he 
was to attend the G-15 summit of leaders of developing countries. As 
defence minister, Mr Mahachi was an important supporter of Zimbabwe's 
involvement in the Congo war, where the country has more than 12,000 troops 
supporting the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila. In January 1999 Mr 
Mahachi ordered the arrest of two Zimbabwean journalists who had reported 
opposition within the army to the Congo war. Army agents severely tortured 
the two journalists before releasing them. Mr Mugabe said the torture of 
the journalists was justified. Despite identification of the torturers and 
considerable evidence, police have not arrested anyone for the crimes. Mr 
Mahachi is the second Zimbabwean cabinet minister to die in a month. Four 
weeks ago the employment minister, Border Gezi, was also killed in a car 
accident. Mr Gezi was a key organiser of the invasions of white-owned farms 
and the often violent election campaigns in rural areas.   (The Guardian, 
UK, 28 May 2001)

* Zimbabwe. Reports of plot against Mugabe denied  -  29 May: A report 
published in The Guardian (UK) states that senior army officers in Zimbabwe 
have secretly warned the South African government that they may launch a 
coup against Robert Mugabe if the growing political and economic crisis 
results in violence. Pretoria has strongly advised against any move to 
overthrow the Zimbabwean president by force but has been made aware of the 
circumstances in which it may be attempted. According to senior sources in 
Pretoria, Zimbabwean military commanders believe the looming failure of the 
maize crop this year will create a food crisis and prove a critical 
flashpoint. Zimbabwe has all but run out of foreign exchange to import 
maize if, as looks likely, supplies of the staple and a partial failure of 
the wheat crop begin to take hold in and about October. 30 May: The BBC 
says that South Africa has denied being secretly warned by senior military 
officers in Zimbabwe that they would be prepared to mount a coup against 
President Mugabe. The Pretoria Government says it does not know of any coup 
threat and would inform the Zimbabwean Government if it heard of 
any.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 30 May 2001)


Weekly anb0531.txt - #8/8 - THE END






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Un homme meurt chaque fois que l'un d'entre nous se tait devant la tyrannie 
(W. Soyinka, Prix Nobel litterature) - Everytime somebody keep silent when 
faced with tyranny, someone else dies (Wole Syinka, Nobel Prize for 
Literature) *
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