By Jerry Van Marter
Harare, 8 December (ENI)--Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said today that gays and lesbians attending the World Council of Churches' eighth assembly here "have come to the right place" to be "purged" of their homosexuality.

Questioned by a Dutch journalist as he left the University of Zimbabwe after addressing the assembly this morning, President Mugabe said "I don't know about any gays or lesbians" at the assembly. "I came to address the World Council of Churches," he said.

"But if they have come as individuals to enhance their moral entity as human beings, and to cure them from their diseased way of life, then they have come to the right place," President Mugabe added. "This is the church, this is the organisation that can purge them."

President Mugabe has in the past made frequent vitriolic attacks on homosexuality which he has described as foreign to African culture. But in his official address to the assembly, he made no mention of homosexuality, although he did call on the delegates to work together against "sexual permissiveness".

The issue of homosexuality is not on the official agenda of the WCC's assembly. There has been no mention of homosexuality in the official plenary debates of the assembly, although there are a number of workshops on human sexuality at the assembly's Padare (meeting place). Members of a local organisation, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, have also been handing out leaflets to assembly delegates, and journalists at official press conferences have asked many questions about the issue.

Also asked as he left the university when Zimbabwean troops would leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo where they are supporting President Laurent Kabila's attempt to end fighting by rebels, President Mugabe said: "When there is peace in the Congo." Peace talks between the warring parties were scheduled for 17 and 18 December, and "if there is an acceptable cease-fire, we will leave," he told journalists.

Commenting on criticism that the Congo intervention - which is reportedly costing US$1 million a day - was too costly for Zimbabwe's struggling economy, President Mugabe said: "The cost won't be any more than what we have already been bearing. As you know we [Zimbabwean troops] have been deployed to other countries, including Mozambique for seven years."

At a press conference held shortly after Mugabe's departure from the university, the WCC's general secretary, Dr Konrad Raiser, was asked about the president's remarks regarding homosexuals. "I don't think it is for me to comment," he said, adding that he had not heard the remarks, and could only respond to the speech delivered by President Mugabe to the assembly. "President Mugabe is in his own country. He is free to say what he says," Dr Raiser said.

Asked by a journalist whether the WCC was limiting freedom of expression because some of its officials helped police stop a small demonstration by a dozen protesters immediately before President Mugabe's arrival, Dr Raiser said: "Since I was not a witness, it is difficult for me to comment."

But, he said, "the fact that the WCC has opened the assembly in the way it has - with the Padare which opens the doors very widely indeed" - was "significant evidence" that the WCC was not limiting discussion at the assembly. [554 words]

Photographs of the assembly are available from Photo Oikoumene

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WCC Assembly Web Site

Photo Oikoumene

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