Britain orders Kunonga assets to be frozen

On Jan 27, the government released a Financial Sanctions Notification
stating that in conjunction with European Commission Regulation No
77/2009 all funds or economic resources belonging to 27 individuals
and 36 corporations tied to the regime of Zimbabwe strongman Robert
Mugabe must be frozen.

Number 13 on the list is Dr Kunonga, whom the Treasury describes as a
self-appointed Anglican Bishop whose followers have been backed by
the police in committing acts of violence.

In 2002 the US State Department and the EU ordered a ban on Dr
Kunonga's movements, forbidding his entry into Europe or the US. The
2009 Treasury circular stated that no funds or economic resources are
to be made available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of
Dr Kunonga or the list of banned regime supporters.

Financial institutions and other bodies and persons in the UK are
required to check whether they maintain any accounts or otherwise hold
any funds or economic resources for the persons named and, if so, they
should report to the Treasury details of all funds or economic
resources that they have frozen in accordance with Article 6 of
Regulation 314/2004, the circular stated.

A long-time ally of the regime, Dr Kunonga is the only clergyman
sanctioned by the EU or the US for his complicity with the crimes of
the Mugabe regime. In a 2004 report the US State Department said that
the Mugabe regime had bypassed canonical law to install Dr Kunonga as
Bishop of Harare and had rewarded him for his loyalty to the regime.
In October 2003, Kunonga seized a formerly white-owned farm 10 miles
from Harare and evicted 50 black workers to make way for his own staff.

On Feb 12 Dr Kunonga gave the invocation at the swearing-in of the
country's new government. Reading from Ezekiel Chapter 37, Dr. Kunonga
likened the fragile coalition of President Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and
the opposition MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to the
valley of dry bones.

The coalition government was the work of God to make Zimbabweans speak
with one voice and govern and control their own destiny," Dr Kunonga
told the small audience at Harare's State House.

"Zimbabweans today are being called to create a situation that is
tolerable and acceptable to us all," Dr Kunonga said to the new leaders
in the service broadcast to the nation. "The leaders have no choice but
to make things work. It’s time to bury the past and continue with what
is progressive and beneficial to us all.

Religious Intelligence