June 30, 2008

ENGLAND – The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, has called for the British Government to close the British High Commission in Harare as part of tougher sanctions against the Zimbabwean government.

Sentamu said that Zimbabwe's embassies across the world should be "downgraded" and only allowed to operate from another country's mission.

Speaking on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show, outside York Minster, the Archbishop of York issued a plea to the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, to intervene directly.

Sentamu said South Africa should remember global pressure forced a change in the apartheid system which had previously governed their lives.

"It is not too late for the South African government to liberate itself from the suggestion that because Mugabe was a war veteran, we can only just simply persuade him," Sentamu said. "You know, in Uganda we were liberated by Tanzania saying enough is enough. South Africa, please, for Heaven's sake, stop all this suggesting that this is going to be imperialism, this is going to [be] militarism. Remember a lot of people in the West put pressure on the then apartheid government – and that apartheid government had to bend to the will of the international community. So South Africa, for Heaven's sake just wake up to what is happening in Zimbabwe..."

A transcript of the interview with Andrew Marr is available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/7479833.stm.

This article first appeared on the Archbishop of York's website at http://www.archbishopofyork.org/1870.

Episcopal News Service