Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori called on Episcopalians to pray for the people of Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has engaged in decades of “systematic repression” of human rights, democracy and economic opportunity as it struggles to remain in power.
 
“In a land that has suffered so greatly in recent years as a result of 165,000 percent inflation, 80 percent unemployment, and poverty so drastic that life expectancy is now only in the mid-30s, the need for healing and transformation could not be more urgent,” she said in a statement that also called for an international arms boycott.
 
Independent election observers believe that supporters of President Mugabe tampered with the results of the recent election in order to prevent the opposition from being declared the winner. Last month, the Chinese government recalled a cargo ship of small arms and ammunition bound for Zimbabwe after the South African government barred the weapons shipment from being transported across South Africa to landlocked Zimbabwe.
 
“The prospect of a more heavily armed Zimbabwe not only further threatens the security and well-being of Zimbabweans, but would also deeply undermine the peace and stability of the whole region,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said. She added the much-publicized refusal of the Chinese arms freighter revealed an urgent need for the United Nations Security Council to impose an internationally enforced embargo that would prevent the Zimbabwe government from murdering its own citizens.
 
Bishop Jefferts Schori joins Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Archbishop of York John Sentamu, and Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Primate of South Africa, in calling for an international arms embargo of Zimbabwe. The Anglican Church of South Africa was instrumental in persuading the South African government to prevent the Chinese weapons from being unloaded last month.
 
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