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East/Subsaharan Africa
Bob gets readmitted to Commonwealth
2003-02-11
The Commonwealth was in turmoil last night after the leaders of Nigeria and South Africa in effect ensured the readmittance of Zimbabwe to the organisation.
Nigeria is a real role-model here.
It took a phone call to John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, in a phone box in Hawaii to signal the end of President Robert Mugabe's diplomatic isolation. His African colleagues had decreed that Zimbabwe should now come in from the cold. The Commonwealth's most recalcitrant member was suspended for a year last March after presidential elections scarred by violence and vote-rigging. The decision was taken by a "troika" of leaders appointed by the 54-member organisation to oversee its response to Zimbabwe when heads of government failed to agree on a course of action at a summit in Queensland two weeks earlier. The panel, comprising Australia, South Africa and Nigeria, was due to meet again next month to review the position before the suspension expired. But unbeknown to Mr Howard, chairman of the panel, secret talks had been going on behind his back.
Either Mr. Howard was slow on the uptake or the other two were being their conniving selves.
In the phone call, taken during a refuelling stop on the way to Washington, Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, told Mr Howard that both he and Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian President, saw no point in reconvening. In effect, Mr Mbeki told Mr Howard that Zimbabwe's spell in the doghouse was over. For if the trio do not meet again, the suspension will automatically lapse next month. Mr Howard, who was flying to America for talks on Iraq with President George Bush, was furious. Caught on the hop, he said yesterday that he had not expected "to discuss Zimbabwe in a telephone booth in Hawaii". He planned to write to all other Commonwealth leaders, he said, to recommend that the suspension be extended until their next full summit meeting in December. "They [Nigeria and South Africa] didn't agree with me that further measures should be taken against Zimbabwe," Mr Howard said. "I deduced from that discussion they would not be unhappy if Zimbabwe were readmitted." For his part, there was nothing he could do. "If they didn't want another meeting, then another meeting wouldn't take place."
Why does the expression "thick as thieves" come to mind?
The ambush, which The Independent reported was being plotted last Saturday, came after talks in Zimbabwe between Mr Mugabe and Mr Obasanjo. During that meeting, the Nigerian leader urged his Zimbabwean counterpart to enact at least some reforms, to make it easier for those who wished to help him. Mr Howard said Zimbabwe had done nothing to warrant being readmitted. "Zimbabwe has not done anything effectively to respond to what it was asked to do," he said. "If anything, the situation appears to have deteriorated and I certainly wouldn't be supporting any notion that Zimbabwe should be readmitted." Mr Howard has been outmanoeuvred and outvoted. Even if he enlists some support among fellow heads of government, there is no forum in which they can discuss the issue before December. By then, Mr Mugabe will have resumed his place at the table.
And how many more Zimbabweans will have been starved or beaten to death?
Once again, the Commonwealth is threatening to split along racial lines. Last year, in the Queensland resort of Coolum, Britain, Australia and New Zealand forcefully argued for Zimbabwe to be suspended before the elections. The move was warranted, they argued, because of the intimidation and violence that had accompanied the campaign. African states, who make up 17 of the Commonwealth's 54 members, wanted Mr Mugabe to be given more time and resisted efforts to railroad them into immediate action. But after Commonwealth observers reported intimidation during the elections and that they did not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people, Mr Mbeki and Mr Obasanjo could no longer demur.
Though they were upset with Bob: not for stealing the election but for being so clumsy about it.
Almost a year on, things have patently not improved in Zimbabwe, and are probably worse. Political and human rights abuses are still rampant. Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, has just gone on trial on what he says are trumped up charges that he plotted to assassinate Mr Mugabe. But as far as Mr Howard's two African colleagues are concerned, Mr Mugabe has served his time.
Maybe they're just bringing Bob back into the fold so they can expel him again after Mr. Tsvangirai is murdered. That'll be a stiff diplomatic setback for Bob.
Mr Howard said many Pacific nations, as well as Britain, New Zealand, Canada and India, opposed lifting the suspension. Perhaps those countries should have anticipated this dilemma when they devolved responsibility to a troika dominated by two men with a record of being soft on Mr Mugabe.
Yep.
If Zimbabwe rejoins next month, as seems certain, Mr Mugabe will have won another diplomatic coup. He has already been allowed by France to attend a summit later this month when travel restrictions on Zimbabwe's elite expire.
Isn't it time for the SAS to arrange an accident?
Posted by:Steve White

#1  Disguting, if not unsurprizing, double-standards. Bob is a racist, brutal, crooked autocrat with issues ("there is an homosexual conspiracy in the UK government against me"). Btw, didn't Louis Farrakhan paid a visit to this great african leader, last year ?
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-02-11 10:34:12  

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