Mugabe pulls Zim out Commonwealth

Mugabe pulls Zim out of C'nwealth

MUGABE

• Mugabe threatens to pull out

• Mugabe looks to China

By Sally Sara in Abuja
08/12/03
ZIMBABWE says it has quit the Commonwealth after the organisation extended the southern African country's suspension.

Commonwealth leaders had agreed overnight in the Nigerian capital Abuja on a process to monitor Zimbabwe's progress on human rights and democratic reform, before allowing its return to the body.

The Zimbabwe government says in a statement that President Robert Mugabe had told the leaders of Jamaica, Nigeria and South Africa when they phoned him one after another that Zimbabwe did not accept the Commonwealth's position and was leaving the group.

"Anything that you agree to on Zimbabwe which is short of this position, no matter how sweetly worded, means Zimbabwe is still a subject of the Commonwealth. This is unacceptable. This is it — it’s quits and quits it will be," the Zimbabwe department of information quoted President Mugabe as emphasising after the three leaders tried to persuade him to keep Zimbabwe within the Commonwealth.

Mugabe added: "We have the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the African Union (AU) as our mentors, not the Commonwealth".

On a suggested visit to Zimbabwe by leaders of the Chogm committee, President Mugabe emphasised that Zimbabwe would receive and welcome them in a brotherly and friendly way but only as leaders of their respective nations, not as representatives of the Commonwealth.

"Accordingly, Zimbabwe has withdrawn its membership from the Commonwealth with immediate effect," the department said.

It described the decision to extend the suspension as blatant and pure racism.

The decision was racist in the sense that British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman announced the decision well in advance of the deliberations of the six-member committee, the department said.

"This is pure racism we fought against to regain our political independence and we cannot be expected to accept blatant racism to prevent us from regaining our economic independence," the department said, adding that the issue was about land and not good governance and human rights.

Under the Commonwealth plan agreed at the heads of government meeting (CHOGM), Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was to travel to Zimbabwe to assess if there had been any improvement in democracy.

He would then report back to a Commonwealth committee, which includes Australia, with his assessment.

The committee - made up of Australia, Canada, India, Jamaica, Mozambique and South Africa - would then give the go-ahead for the issue to be presented to a council of the 54-nation body's members.

"This a situation where one can't really say it will be one year, it will be six months," Mr Obasanjo said earlier, when asked how long it might be before he was ready to give Mr Mugabe's government a clean bill of health.

"We will watch the situation in Zimbabwe very carefully. If things are moving the way I think they are moving I will be talking in terms of months rather than years," he said.

The decision came after leaders from 52 nations at the CHOGM received recommendations from an ad-hoc panel comprising the leaders of the six-nation committee.

"In the CHOGM in Abuja the process of lifting Zimbabwe's suspension started," Mr Obasanjo said, adding that the declaration had been reached by consensus despite some opposition from certain members.

On the situation in the southern African country, he said: "I believe there are movements that have not been made public.

"I believe that when the movements that have taken place are made public that will be regarded as significant," he said without elaborating.

Prime Minister John Howard welcomed the Commonwealth's decision, which he called a sensible and clear-cut outcome.

"Without going into all the detail of the discussion, the one thing I want to make very plain is that the discussion today did not divide, could I put it bluntly, along black and white lines," he said.

But Mr Howard said he was pessimistic about whether Zimbabwe would have done enough to deserve readmission to the Commonwealth.

"Let's understand this. There has to be a bona fide improvement in Zimbabwe or we won't be agreeing to anything." - ABC NEWS
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