Members of the clergy and laity of Zimbabwe's major churches on Thursday denounced President Robert Mugabe's government as the biblical "beast of anarchy".

They vowed they would mount a campaign to force the government to restore democracy and end its "oppressive" rule.

A statement issued on Thursday evening by 109 pastors, priests and laymen from 59 Christian churches condemned the regime for political violence, the breakdown of the rule of law, suppression of the opposition and the erosion of democracy.

"Any government that negates these fundamental principles (of the rule of law, equality of citizens) to which we are committed, forfeits its God-given mandate to rule," the statement said.

"It cannot therefore demand submission and obedience of its citizens." The statement described Mugabe's government as the biblical "beast" of the Book of Revelations "which usurps power and terrorises God's defenceless people, thus fomenting anarchy and lawlessness in the land." The statement came after the end of a meeting of churchmen and women, and organisers said the declarations were not formal positions taken by the churches' hierarchy.

blind eye to the government's abuses.

Also present at the meeting was Klaas Tebogo, a representative of the office of the secretary-general of the South African Council of Churches.

Conference spokesman Jonah Gokova said the statement had been meant to be published in an advertisement in the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, at the end of a conference two weeks ago.

However, the newspaper was banned by authorities on September 12, the day the conference ended.

Lawyers said nine of the newspaper's 64 journalists had been summoned to Harare central police station today and charged with "assisting in the production of an illegal newspaper." Two weeks ago heavily armed police stormed the offices of the four-year-old newspaper and seized its computer equipment. On Friday last week the state-controlled press licensing body formally declared the newspaper banned.

The churches' statement demanded that the government "immediately" repeal the current constitution which "does not nurture democracy" and replace it with a "new people-driven constitution." It also demanded the repeal of all repressive legislation, including laws used last week to ban the Daily News, and the abolition of the ruling Zanu-PF party's notorious "youth national service" which, it said, was used for the "indoctrination and abuse of young ...to commit serious human rights abuses and violence for party political ends."

It said the country was "locked in a crisis of governance that is characterised by the undermining of the rule of law, the use of political violence as a tool of intimidation, coercion and suppression of any form of opposition." The churchman said that the "culture of violence" begun when the country was under white minority rule "has been taken to higher levels with impunity by the present regime."

They accepted that there was need for a redistribution of land after a century of white domination of the country's agricultural areas, but condemned Mugabe's "revolutionary land reform programme." "We do not approve of irresponsible, inhuman, violent, partisan and non-transparent methods of addressing the problem," the statement said.

With 79-year-old Mugabe in his 24th year of rule, the country is classified as having the fastest shrinking economy in the world.

Gross domestic product is forecast to drop 15 percent this year, inflation has hit 427 percent and the country suffers critical shortages of fuel and banknotes.09/25/03 23-57