By Lovemore Chazingwa and Godfrey Mavunduse
VISITING internationally acclaimed woman of peace and cloth Dr.Hak Ja Han Moon has the key to the removal of sanctions imposed on the landlocked tropical country by super-power USA almost two decades ago, a local Archbishop has said.
Archbishop Ndanga made the remarks at the last of pre-event press conferences ahead of the festival which has garnered a lot of interest among Zimbabweans, Africa and the world at large.
Dr. Moon will tomorrow preside over a festival dubbed ‘Peace starts with me, peace starts with my family’. The festival is dedicated to about 40 000 couples from all over the globe.
Ironically, the resilient nation is much more grappling economic down-spin under Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) crafted in reaction to, inter alia, human rights abuses, political play-field, electoral reforms and controversial agrarian reforms embarked on about the new millennium.
Speaking at the charged press conference convened on the eve of the much awaited Family Peace Festival to be held at the momentous National Sports Stadium tomorrow, Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe President (ACCZ) Archbishop Johannes Ndanga had no kind words for those calling for rejecting Dr. Moon.
“Why call for the denial of a person who is not looking for anything from Zimbabwe. She has vast resources and investments for herself. She is one who can single-handedly fight for the removal of sanctions or is it removing Zimbabwe from sanctions whichever goes,” he said.
Adding: “Calling for the rejection of such a person is like shooting oneself in the foot.”
He said Dr. Moon had flown in a personal plane direct from New York with eight others. The plane can accommodate about 1000 passengers. She also owns world influencing publication, The Washington Times newspaper, among a host of other media assets.
The Washington Times chairperson Thomas McDevitt who was part of the panel weighed in: “Peace comes from the heart of a person. McDevitt pointed that he will use his influence with connections to Congress in the US to canvass for the removal of sanctions. He said this is not a joke but a commitment per-se.
However, Archbishop Ndanga acknowledged that peace and sanctions removal need a combined effort and no one person can hold fort sole monopoly to them.
“No one person can fight the sanctions. We have opened our doors to all so that this is an effort by everybody including the other churches and political players.
“This is a Family Peace Festival but Dr. Han Moon is not coming for peace alone, she will also be looking at other aspects of our society to have a wholesome impact on the people of Zimbabwe.”
Archbishop Ndanga added that the hosting of the festival in the month of November has no relation to the change of government and no idea to that coincidence when they mooted the concept to host it then extending an invitation to doomsayers to come on board.
“Detractors are also welcome to attend as this an all inclusive effort to bring peace and unity to the country,” said Archbishop Ndanga.
“The encouragement for them to come on board is for the benefit of themselves, families and society at large,” the man of cloth opined.
Hosting of this festival comes at a time some sections of the media are leading the public down the garden path with misleading information that this is a cult gathering contrary to the intended objective, that of propagating peace.
Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in collaboration with Universal Peace Federation and Women Federation for World Peace International are some of the pillar organs in this initiative. They have general consultative status in the UN Education and Social Council, a very powerful organ for upholding social service development in the world.