Archbishop goes into hiding. (News in Brief: Zimbabwe).

Harare -- The chaos caused by the expropriation of white-owned farms rejected in a constitutional referendum in 2000, but carried out by Robert Mugabe's government anyway, continues to deepen. It turns out that a third of the expropriated farms have gone to President Mugabe's political henchmen, including one farm to his wife. Meanwhile, 150,000 farm workers have lost their jobs, farm production has shrunk disastrously, and over 50% of the entire population now depends on international food aid.

Few religious leaders have dared to criticize the actions of the Mugabe regime. An exception is Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube (see C.I., March 2003, p.27), who together with several Protestant ministers has formed "Christians for Peace and Justice," a group of about 10 religious leaders and 100 members.

Archbishop Ncube of Bulawayo had been cautioned by the police several times to stop "politizing" his sermons. After an ecumenical prayer meeting in early March attended by a South African Anglican delegation, where those in attendance heard about individual cases of torture, state security agents wanted to arrest the Archbishop immediately. They failed to do so because the South African delegates and other ministers prevented it. Archbishop Ncube has now gone into hiding (ENI, Zenit).