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ZIMBABWE-HOPE Sep-1-2009 (500 words) xxxi
US bishop, adviser see vast changes in Zimbabwe since last year
By Bronwen Dachs
Catholic News Service
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNS) -- Zimbabwe is a "vastly different place" than it was a year ago, with a new "level of hope," said Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla.
"There is food in the shops, people are in the supermarkets buying things," using U.S. dollars, the South African rand and other currencies introduced after the formation of Zimbabwe's unity government in February, Bishop Ricard told Catholic News Service Aug. 30.
Last year, with the Zimbabwean dollar in use, the country had the world's highest inflation rate.
Hyperinflation ended with the introduction of multiple currencies and there is "more economic activity now," said Bishop Ricard, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Subcommittee on the Church in Africa, who visited Zimbabwe last year and in late August.
Last year the situation in Zimbabwe was "desperate, with people going without food, water and electricity," Bishop Ricard said, noting that there was a "sense of doom and gloom, a pall over society, including the church."
Steve Hilbert, Africa policy adviser in the U.S. bishops' Office of International Justice and Peace, said Aug. 29, "It was startling to see the number of people on the streets" of the capital, Harare.
He said that in "Zimbabwe a lot has changed for the better" since he and Bishop Ricard visited in August 2008.
The two men and Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City visited Zimbabwe Aug. 26-28. They met with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in Harare.
Bishop Ricard said it seemed Zimbabweans had "hope and anticipation" for a "way out" of their political and economic stagnation with constitutional reform.
Under the deal that brought President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change into a coalition government in February, Zimbabwe will draft a constitution that will go before voters for approval in a referendum in 2010, clearing the way for new government elections. The constitutional process is seen by the church and others in Zimbabwe "as a concrete way of achieving change," Bishop Ricard said.
With the uncertainty caused by the temporary nature of the unity government, there is a "need for some permanency" and Zimbabweans are worried that without a new constitution the insecurity will continue, he said.
Hilbert said the church in Zimbabwe "is encouraging people to take advantage of this opportunity to speak out" on what they want in a constitution.
Zimbabweans "have just lifted their heads out of the water and haven't got to grips with reconciliation yet," Bishop Ricard said, noting that last year "there was enormous uncertainty about the future" with the violence that followed disputed elections in March and a wrecked economy.
The church in Zimbabwe has much "internal reconciliation" to do, with "divisions in the pews" between supporters of Mugabe's Zanu-PF who benefited from his rule and those who suffered under his policies.
Brutal state-sponsored violence targeting the opposition after disputed March 2008 elections left more than 80 people dead and 200,000 displaced, human rights groups said.
END
Copyright (c) 2009 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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