Death threat denial from Lambeth Palace: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 29, 2010 p 6. October 31, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.trackback
Dr. Nolbert Kunonga
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Reports in the African press that the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned the Bishops of Harare and Manicaland that they were “targets for assassination” are unfounded, a spokesman for Lambeth Palace tells The Church of England Newspaper.
On Oct 24, Zimonline, an émigré news service serving the Zimbabwean diaspora, reported that the “office of the Archbishop of Canterbury” had warned that Bishop Chad Gandiya and Bishop Julius “could be assassinated.”
Bishop Gandiya has been locked in a long-running dispute with the former Bishop of Harare, Dr Nolbert Kunonga, over the ownership of the diocese’s properties. While the courts have ordered the parties to share church premises pending a final adjudication of the dispute, the security services have thrown their support behind Dr. Kunonga and evicted Anglicans loyal to Bishop Gandiya from church properties.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has strongly denounced the state’s support for the renegade bishop and the disregard for the rule of law in Zimbabwe, and has backed Dr. Gandiya, and his counterpart in Manicaland, Bishop Makoni, as have the primates of the Anglican Communion and the Anglican bishops of Africa.
However, last week’s report from Zimonline, which was subsequently reprinted in other African newspapers, said Dr. Williams’ office stated that elements within the security forces saw the two bishops as being political threats to the regime of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, and “so Kunonga has been given support to eliminate them.”
The African press quoted a spokesman for Dr. Williams as having warned that “in the first week of October Bishop Julius and Bishop Chad were informed that orders had been given to assassinate them both.”
While not discounting the parlous situation facing the Anglican bishops of Harare and Manicaland, a spokesman for Dr. Williams told CEN, no such warning had been given by their office.
“The quotes” offered by Zimonline “must have come from another source, as the Archbishop has not spoken on such specific matters recently,” Lambeth Palace press officer David Brownlie-Marshall said on Oct 22.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, in his bid to support Chad Gandiya and Julius Makoni, has become their confused spokesman. He publishes anything and everything that they tell him, whether with facts or without facts. Has no-one not told him that the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has already made a ruling on Harare and that Archbishop Kunonga was granted all the property. His people, Gandiya and his followers, are the ones trying to force themselves against the Court order. What “rule of law in Zimbabwe” does the Archbishop of Canterbury want to lecture on? We are astounded to read some of the things that he says out of misinformation or ignorance.Gandiya and Makoni can never be state security threats. The fact that they are backed by Canterbury does not make any right thinking person scared and threatened. They have failed in the Courts and on the ground as a parallel arrangement under the laws of Zimbabwe. Does that make them a threat? Kind regards. Divine