Population
11.2 million
Shona (76%)
Ndebele (18%)
Batonka (2%)
Shangaan (1%),
Venda (1%)
European
Asian
Capital City
Harare
Leadership
President
Robert Gabriel Mugabe
Religion
Christian
Mwari
Zimbabwe
Ambassador
to the
U.S.
Ambassador
His Excellency
Dr. Simbi V. Mubako
Embassy of Zimbabwe
1608 New Hampshire
Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 332-7100
Fax:
(202) 483-9326
Email:
zimemb@erols.com
BIO
In the past Christians have enjoyed relative freedoms in Zimbabwe, with their faith being shared by
the majority of their countrymen. However, recent political
tensions and attempts to squash anyone who appears
threatening to rising political powers have left Christians
facing a new enemy.
Violence associated with recent general elections has
been the main threat to date. Members of Movement for
Democratic Change have
made up the majority of deaths
in these incidents, as they have been the
primary
opposition to 77-year-old President Robert Mugabe and
his Zanu-PF Party.
Recently the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
criticized what it termed the ‘carefully orchestrated
violence’, which the
organization sees as part of a ‘modus
operandi to crush opposition party support’. The
Euro-
pean Union has imposed sanctions targeting President
Mugabe and key members of his regime and withheld
millions in development aid for the 2002-2007 period
following the expulsion of the head of the EU election
monitoring mission. The US Government has said it will
match the EU sanctions.
Opposition politicians welcomed the imposition of
sanc-
tions, but most feel that it has come too late to influence
the conduct of the election campaign. Most
recently,
Christians staging a prayer procession to
ask for peace-
ful elections were arrested. They face up
to two years in
prison or heavy fines of up to $1000.
Can you recommend some
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