Via ANCAPS: World churches urge UN act on Zimbabwe "atrocities"

GENEVA, June 18 (Reuters) - The World Council of Churches (WCC) on Wednesday called for United Nations action to put an end to "atrocities" committed by the Zimbabwe authorities in advance of June 27 run-off presidential elections.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, WCC General Secretary Samuel Kobia of Kenya said his organisation was "dismayed at news of the brutality meted out by police and other government forces" in Zimbabwe.

Kobia said the WCC, which groups Protestant and Orthodox churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, "calls for an end to atrocities in Zimbabwe".

"Harassment, beatings, arrests and ransacking of property have already extended into the churches as well as agencies of civil society," the WCC letter declared.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai emerged ahead of President Robert Mugabe in the first round of the poll and says the government is conducting a campaign of violence and intimidation before the run-off vote.

Mugabe blames his opponents for the violence.

LNK
_________________
"Taking money without permission is stealing unless you work for the IRS then it's taxation. Killing people en masse is homicidal mania unless you work for the Army then it's National Defense. Spying on your neighbors is invasion of privacy unless you work for the FBI then it's National Security. Running a whorehouse makes you a pimp & poisoning people makes you a murderer unless you work for the CIA then it's counter intelligence." R. Wilson. ANCAPS Forum Headquarters, Ancapolis