Mugabe of Zimbabwe is a Hitler says Pretoria bishop

Zimbabwean dictator Robert Gabriël Mugabe is a modern-day Hitler and must be forcibly removed from his power-base, said the Anglican Bishop of Pretoria Joe Seoka on Thursday.

Zimbabwean dictator Robert Gabriël Mugabe is a modern-day Hitler and should be overthrown with violence and then tried for crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague, said the Anglican Bishop of Pretoria Joe Seoka said on Thursday. "Mugabe is a person without conscience or remorse, and a murderer," he said in a statement. He called on churches to pray for the forced removal of Mugabe's removal on December 16 - which is Thanksgiving Day in South Africa, and also is still widely celebrated as the Day of the Vow by the Afrikaner minority. The Pretoria bishop said that under Mugabe's rule, innocent Zimbabweans have suffered greatly and his suppression had led to untold casualties and many deaths. The Zululand-born bishop also accused the so-named Southern African Development Community of 'protecting their comrade in dictatorship" while international leaders had overwhelmingly called for Mugabe's removal. He said some SADC members such as Botswana - one of the very few African countries which showed a dramatic economic upturn on a continent which mainly has been in a downward slide -- had raised their voices in protest. This was a clear sideswipe at his own country's deposed president, Thabo Mbeki, who has persistently supported Mugabe and provided him with aid in the form of electricity, food and fuel to prop up his regime over the years. Botswana was one of the few African countries whose leaders also 'raised their voices in protest at the violation of human rights in Zimbabwe, expressing deep concern for the ongoing abuses which continued unchecked,' he said at the church's seminar today. "I believe it is now an opportune moment for all the church leaders to follow the calls by the retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, to call on God to cause the removal Mugabe from the office of the President of Zimbabwe." 'Calls for Mugabe to leave voluntarily - even though he had lost the last presidential election -- was clearly not going to help,' he said. "He must be forcefully removed by all means necessary to stop further suffering of God's children and save lives in that country. The bishop said 'Mugabe should be arrested and tried, like his "comrade", former Liberian president Charles Taylor, by the International Court in The Hague for the atrocities he had committed during his tenure.' South Africans increasingly desperate to see the backs of Zimbabwean refugees... And the Pretoria bishop also called on those many desperate South Africans who were agitating for Zimbabwean refugees to return to their country to be patient with them until Mugabe was removed from office. "We need to commit ourselves to assist the refugees from Zimbabwe in our midst, remembering that the one we call our Lord and Saviour was a refugee in Egypt, fleeing the Mugabe of that period, King Herod." See