Harare - Roman Catholic leaders in Zimbabwe denounced the government's violence-wracked land reform scheme on Sunday as a "political power game" and backed the judiciary's stand against the government.
"This is no longer a free country. People live in abject fear of violence, crime and threats," said a statement from the Conference of Religious Superiors of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe.
"The rule of law is no longer respected, terror and intimidation go unpunished," it added.
"We wish to back the judges and law officials who defend the constitutional rights of the citizens of Zimbabwe," said the statement, which was published in the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper.
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White and black Zimbabweans generally accept the need to resettle "We are very concerned that the fast-track land redistribution inflicts untold misery on the farm labourers and their families who are made redundant.
"Even the resettled people face great hardships: they appear to be pawns in a political power game without any secure legal tenure to the land allocated to them," the statement said.
Church leaders have until now taken a neutral position on the government's "fast-track" land reform scheme, which seeks to resettle five million hectares of white-owned farmland with poor black farmers.
White and black Zimbabweans generally accept the need to resettle some white-owned lands to correct colonial-era inequalities in land ownership.
But since February 2000, land reform has been tangled in a violent and politically charged squatter campaign, spearheaded by militant, self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war.
More than 34 people have died in political conflict Squatters still occupy about 1 000 white farms, down from a peak of 1 600 last year, and the violence continues unabated.
The most recent killing came earlier this month, when 72-year-old white farmer Gloria Olds was shot dead by unidentified attackers in the southwest province of Matabeleland.
More than 34 people, mostly blacks, have died in political violence during the last year. - Sapa-AFP
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