The pari****oners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the
riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare,
Zimbabwe's capital. Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews
with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded
for the doors, witnesses said.
A policeman swung his stick in vicious arcs, striking matrons, a girl
and a grandmother who had bent over to pick up a Bible dropped in the
melee. A lone housewife began singing from a hymn in Shona, "We will
keep wor****ping no matter the trials!" Hundreds of women, many dressed
in the Anglican Mothers' Union uniform of black skirt, white ****rt and
blue headdress, lifted their voices to join hers.
Beneath their defiance, though, lay raw fear as the country's ruling
party stepped up its campaign of intimidation ahead of a presidential
runoff. In a conflict that has penetrated ever deeper into Zimbabwe's
social fabric, the party has focused on a growing roster of groups
that elude its direct control =97 a list that includes the Anglican
diocese of Harare, as well as charitable and civic organizations,
trade unions, teachers, independent election monitors and the
political opposition.
Anglican leaders and pari****oners said in interviews that the church
was not concerned with politics and that it counted people from both
the ruling party and the opposition in its congregations.
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