Magic Statistics

A report released this week by the church-based organisation Solidarity Peace Trust documents violent repression, widespread torture, and abuse of power by the Mugabe regime.  Investigators interviewed over 400 persons who had been victims of state violence in recent months.

In the 44-page document, the trust accuses the Mugabe regime of continuing to use violence against its political opponents in order to cling to power.

"Out of 414 individuals interviewed, 30 percent, or 122, reported torture between March, April and May 2007. This is a shockingly high figure, yet it represents [only a] tip of the iceberg in Zimbabwe. Apart from politically motivated torture, torture of those arrested on suspicion of having committed a criminal offence is routine in Zimbabwe," notes the report.

"In 90 percent of the attacks, government agencies such as the police, Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and army" were involved, it adds. More than three-quarters of reported cases were in the capital, Harare, "one of the two major urban areas considered to be opposition territory".

In launching the report, Pius Ncube, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo. called Mugabe “a megalomaniac” who “loves power . . . lives for power”.

The report, entitled “Destructive Engagement: Violence, mediation and politics in Zimbabwe”, can be downloaded here (pdf).  The Solidarity Peace Trust is co-chaired by Abp Ncube and Rubin Phillips, Anglican Bishop of KwaZulu-Natal, Republic of South Africa.

Previous related posts:

• Church responds to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown
• Mugabe’s church has turned against him
• Mugabe threatens Catholic bishops
• US Catholic bishops support Zimbabwean counterparts
• Archbishop Pius Ncube: Mugabe’s most defiant opponent

Or, as a former government employee I know invariably calls them, “snivelling servants”.

From the 16 April issue of Natal Anglican News, published by the Diocese of Natal, Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

For the (criminal) record

A misprint in our last issue (which focussed on crime and corruption) recorded that a wedding had taken place at “St Bribe’s”. An ecclesiastical historian has suggested that St Bribe may be patron saint of civil servants and parliamentarians, a martyr who met his end by being stung to death by scorpions.

The complete issue can be downloaded here (pdf).

Leftists decry domestic violence, yet they are often antagonistic toward the social institution that offers the best protection available against such violence—marriage.  A recently published study provides further evidence for the role of marriage in enhancing women’s safety.

“As might be expected in a sample of households with school-aged children,” the researchers report, “stably married couples . . . have the lowest rates of I[ntimate]P[artner]V[iolence].” For stably married couples, the researchers calculate an incidence of 16.2% for overall IPV and of 3.5% for IPV involving “physical violence with injury.”   In contrast, the researchers find that “cohabiting couples show the highest rates of  IPV.”  Among cohabiting couples the rate of overall IPV runs more than twice as high as that found among stably married couples (37.5% among “stable cohabiting couples”; 33.6% among “new” cohabiting couples).  The rate of physical violence with injury runs four times as high as that found among stably married couples (16.1% among stable cohabiting couples; 14.1% among new cohabiting couples).

The study goes a step further and shows that domestic violence is more likely to occur in some neighbourhoods than others.  Specifically, the higher the proportion of single-parent households in the neighbourhood, the higher the overall prevalence of domestic violence.

Nor is it just a woman’s own marital status that determines her vulnerability to domestic violence.  The authors of the new study establish that “neighborhood context” also helps determine that vulnerability.  And in determining whether a neighborhood is “advantaged” or “disadvantaged” the researchers look at—among other social and economic characteristics—the fraction of households in the neighborhood that are headed by single parents.  When that fraction rises, the neighborhood becomes more disadvantaged.

The researchers note that, compared to violence-free couples, “couples with IPV are more likely . . . to live in neighborhoods of high disadvantage.”  Among couples who reported Intimate Partner Violence, 27.3% lived in disadvantaged neighborhoods; among couples who reported no IPV, only 18.3%.  Among couples who reported severe domestic violence involving injury, more than a third (35.2%) lived in disadvantaged neighborhoods, compared to less than a fifth (19.1%) of those who reported no severe domestic violence.

These results indicate that social and political support for marriage could reduce domestic violence.

Study reference: Greer Litton Fox and Michael L. Benson, “Household and Neighborhood Contexts of Intimate Partner Violence,” Public Health Reports 121 [2006]: 419-427.

Previous related posts:

• Family instability correlated with poor behaviour in children
• Children do best when raised by married parents
• Cohabitation is an inferior imitation of the real thing
• Does marriage matter for the nurturing of children?

John Piper recorded at University Christian Fellowship, Birmingham, 2 November 2005.

St Paul said, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”  Amen to that.

h/t: Thinking Christian

Previous related post: John Piper: Being mocked the essence of Christ’s work

Son Jong Nam was imprisoned in North Korea over a year ago and sentenced to public execution for his Christian faith.  His younger brother is visiting the United States to call attention to his plight.

“Right now the purpose of my life is to save my brother,” said Son Jong Hoon. “Now I am also praying to God to save my brother.

“Please, please, please write letters to your senators and members in Congress,” he pleaded. “Please, please also write a letter to the United Nations. Also please write to government authorities in North Korea.”

A campaign backed by advocates for persecuted Christians and several US senators is now underway to secure Mr Son’s release and safe passage out of the country.

Son was joined Thursday by Sen. Brownback who last week sent letters signed by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), and David Vitter (R-La.) to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking them to work to secure the release of the Christian prisoner.

“This is a horrific case. The execution should not occur. It is wrong,” said Brownback. “I think the North Korean government, as part of the six-party talks and as a statement of good faith, should not execute this individual.

A former captain in the North Korean army, Son Jong Nam defected to China after his pregnant wife miscarried during a brutal interrogation by government thugs.  Son fled to China in 1998 with his wife, son, and brother, but his wife died there from her injuries.

It was in China that he met a South Korean missionary and became a Christian. Mr. Son continued his religious studies and felt called to be an evangelist in North Korea.

However, Son was arrested by Chinese police in 2001, sent back to North Korea, charged and imprisoned with sending missionaries into his native country. He was paroled briefly in 2004 and went to China. When he returned to North Korea in January 2006, he was arrested again and has remained in prison since.

Voice of the Martyrs is asking people to pray for Son’s safe release and to send letters and e-mails on his behalf.  At VOM’s Prisoner Alert website, you can send a personal letter of encouragement and support.

More coverage:

• Senators, Rights Group Demand Release Of North Korean Christian Awaiting Execution
• Brother Pleads for Life of North Korean Facing Death for Faith
• Race To Save a Korean Christian

h/t: Persecution Blog

Previous related posts:

• Eyewitness reports from North Korea’s gulag
• North Korean escapees maltreated in China
• North Korean evangelist martyred for distributing Bibles