By MICHAEL HARTNACK

Associated Press Writer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) – A prominent Roman Catholic Archbishop and outspoken critic of President Robert Mugabe called Sunday for peaceful street protests aimed at overthrowing the longtime ruler, saying this week’s parliamentary elections are certain to be rigged.

Pius Ncube, bishop of Zimbabwe’s second-largest city of Bulawayo, told The Associated Press he was willing to put on his vestments and lead a march to Mugabe’s presidential residence himself, but feared: “If I do it, I do it alone.”

“The people are so scared,” he said of the political climate in Zimbabwe ahead of the elections. “You are not going to get that where people are so cowardly.”

Mugabe, a former guerrilla leader largely ostracized by the international community, has led Zimbabwe since the end of white rule in 1980.

After the opposition won almost half the seats in elections in 2000 – despite what independent observers called widespread violence and vote-rigging – Mugabe began redistributing white-owned farms to black Zimbabweans in an apparent bid to rally support.

The often-violent land redistribution campaign and an accompanying crackdown on dissent plunged the southern African nation of nearly 13 million people into international isolation and economic crisis.

The economy has shrunk 50 percent during the past five years, and the unemployment rate is at least 70 percent. Agriculture, the economic base of Zimbabwe, has collapsed and at least 70 percent of the population live in poverty.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called Zimbabwe an “outpost of tyranny.”

Ncube believes Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party will easily win Thursday’s poll, but he said the vote already is tainted by years of violence, intimidation and repressive laws. He pointed out that the military will be overseeing the count, and he accused them of cheating for Mugabe.

The main opposition group is Movement for Democratic Change, headed by Morgan Tsvangirai.

“I hope that people get so disillusioned that they really organize against the government and kick him out by a nonviolent, popular, mass uprising,” Ncube said in a separate interview with the South African newspaper The Sunday Independent.

“Because as it is, people have been too soft with this government. So people should pluck up just a bit of courage and stand up against him and chase him away.”

Ncube confirmed the comments to the AP but was more guarded in an interview conducted over Zimbabwe’s state-monitored telephone lines. Calls for unauthorized protests are punishable by up to 20 years in jail under Zimbabwe’s harsh Public Order and Security Act.

While this year’s election has been less blatantly violent than previous ones, Ncube said “a kind of tacit violence” persists.

He accused the government of denying desperately needed food aid to opposition supporters in rural centers such as Filabusi, about 248 miles south of Harare, where he said more than 200 hungry families had been turned away.

Ncube also criticized opposition leaders, who have been at pains to avoid bloodshed since at least 200 people were killed during the government’s farm seizures.

“We do not have a leader to lead us. We need someone who is courageous,” Ncube said. “People must be ready even to risk losing their lives; everyone wants to keep safe.”

Earlier, Ncube delivered Easter Mass at Bulawayo’s packed St. Mary’s Cathedral, urging worshippers to remain hopeful and persevere.

“Somewhere there shall come a resurrection for Zimbabwe,” he said.

Worshippers offered prayers for peace in the last days before the hotly contested vote pitting Mugabe’s ZANU-PF against

“Without peace, you cannot do anything to improve your lot,” said Agatha Mukadiro, a 47-year-old mother-of-four, as she left the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Harare.

The tumultuous land reform program, combined with years of drought and a government crackdown on dissent, have plunged the nation of nearly 13 million people into international isolation and economic crisis.

Copy the Story Link