Tearfund has criticised the arrest last Friday of six Zimbabwe church leaders by armed police who intervened in a church meeting attended by over 500 people.

The pastors and two others were arrested while attending a dedication service for a regional chapter of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance (ZCA), in Kadoma, south-west of Harare.

Tearfund's international director, Peter Grant said, "More and more often we are seeing the activities of churches and relief agencies disrupted by government intimidation in Zimbabwe. Church leaders dedicated to alleviating desperate poverty spent the weekend in police detention. This action is unacceptable when so much combined effort of the ZCA is committed to helping the poor."

The detention of the church leaders comes at a time when the socio-economic situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated to alarming levels. The majority of Zimbabweans are living far below the poverty datum line and thousands of children have failed to resume school because of lack of school fees.

More than 500 church leaders and Christian lay people attended the Friday meeting, as the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance launched a chapter of the organisation in Kadoma as part of a nationwide drive to establish Christian leaders' networks in the country's ten provinces. The aim of establishing these networks is to create local chapters of the alliance as platforms to equip Christian leaders on church-based advocacy and peace-building.

In the course of the meeting armed police officers disrupted the launch, arresting eight members of the Christian Alliance and a video camera man, who however was later released. The eight leaders from the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance are still in custody awaiting trial on Monday. The state is alleging that the alliance incited the crowd to violence. This allegation is totally baseless as the Christian Alliance exists to bring about peaceful social transformation in Zimbabwe, Tearfund said.

"As Christian leaders no amount of intimidation will silence us as this would be tantamount to a denial of our faith and calling," said Pastor Lucky Moyo, a spokesperson for ZCA. "We condemn this latest act of wanton violation of fundamental human rights and disregard of freedom of religion. We demand that the government opens up democratic space and starts de-politicisation and demilitarisation of the public institutions to enable a peaceful social transformation in Zimbabwe."

The use of armed police to disrupt a religious meeting is a clear abuse of power and authority by the police. The continued harassment of the Christian Alliance leadership by government authorities is cause for concern to the Christian community at large as this infringes on freedom of worship, expression and association.

The Christian Alliance leaders who were detained were: Pastors Ray Motsi of the Baptist Church of Bulawayo; Ancelom Magaya (visually impaired) of the Zimbabwe National Pastors Conference; Gerald Mubaira; Zvizai Chiponda; Watson Mugabe; Lawrence Berejina. And two other ZCA members: Mr Jonah Gokova, Director of Ecumenical Support Service and Mr Pius Wakatama, a journalist for the ZCA journal.