ZIMBABWE, as with all countries serving suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth, is not eligible to attend the 54-member clubâs forthcoming heads of government summit to be held in Nigeria in December this year and the host country is obliged to respect this common practice, a spokesman for the Commonwealth secretariat said on Thursday.
No deals for Bob? Maybe his neighbors are getting smart?
In a telephone interview with the Sunday Mirror, Commonwealth spokesman Joel Kibazo said Zimbabweâs exclusion from the December summit was not an issue for debate as the common practice among member states is that suspended countries are simply not invited.
"and please show the good taste to STFU about it"
âThe common practice is that countries suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth do not attend. There are two under suspension at the moment, and they are Zimbabwe and Pakistan. As you know, Pakistan did not attend the last heads of government meeting in Coolum, Australia.â
bet the Aussies missed them? not
The Nigerian government, which is under immense pressure from the Commonwealth secretariat as well as other member states to bar President Robert Mugabe from attending the summit, is reported to have said last week that it had not taken a decision on the matter. But Australian Prime Minister and current Commonwealth chairperson, John Howard told his national legislature that he had received assurances from the clubâs secretary general Don McKinnon and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo that Mugabe will not be invited. Kibazo also gave credence to Howardâs claims when he confirmed that only 52 invitations to the Nigeria summit have been sent out, meaning both Zimbabwe and Pakistan will not attend the meeting. Howard, Obasanjo and South African President, Thabo Mbeki constitute a troika that was mandated by the Commonwealth heads of government at their Coolum meeting, âto determine appropriate Commonwealth action on Zimbabwe, in the event of an adverse report from the Commonwealth Observer Group to the Zimbabwe Presidential electionâ in March 2002. The troika deemed the observer groupâs conclusions to be an adverse report on the electoral process and decided to suspend Zimbabwe from the councils of the Commonwealth for one year.
| That gets him through March of this year... |
At the expiry of Zimbabweâs suspension in March this year, members of the troika were split on whether to readmit the country into the club or extend its suspension, with Howard preferring the latter. While Mbeki and Obasanjo argued that the suspension should be lifted, McKinnon went on to announce the extension of punitive measures against Zimbabwe, provoking spirited criticism from SADC diplomats in London, who expressed strong reservations over the manner in which the Commonwealth secretary general had acted out of sync with the clubsâs rules and procedures.
| Bob's election hadn't turned honest, had it? |
But effectively, the suspension held firm and it is at the Abuja summit that heated debate is expected to flare on the question of Zimbabweâs readmission. The Commonwealth secretariat has set the tone for a major showdown among member states with its blistering condemnation of the Zimbabwean authorities for their âmajor infringement of freedom of the Press and . . . the spirit of Commonwealth fundamental political valuesâ when they shut down the privately-owned Daily News a fortnight ago. Zimbabweâs Supreme Court ruled on September 11 that the newspaper was operating outside of the law by failing to register with the Media and Information Commission (MIC) as required under the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which was passed last year. The MIC has since considered and thrown out the application by Associated Newspapers Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the Daily News and its stable-mate, the Daily News on Sunday, meaning that the two titles remain closed.
| I'd call shutting down the press in the same category as rigging elections, though not quite so egregious as stomping members of the opposition into bloody paste. The more dictatorially inclined heads of Commonwealth states, though, will look to the letter rather than the spirit of the rules... |
The convergence of these developments with the sending out of invitations for the Commonwealth summit has put the country back under the strident spotlight of the outside world.
South Africa, which had earlier advocated for Zimbabweâs invitation to Abuja, has been rather wavering on its position. First, Mbekiâs spokesperson, Bheki Khumalo, told SABC radio news and the Agence France Presse news agency early last week that the South African government saw no reason why Mugabe should not be invited and it would ask Obasanjo to invite him. âNo doubt we will engage with the Nigerian government and President Obasanjo so that an invitation is extended to Zimbabwe,â he told the SABC.
| "Bob? Wot's wrong with Bob? O' course we should invite him!" |
But Khumalo later climbed down from this position, saying the decision to invite or not to invite Zimbabwe lay squarely in Nigeriaâs lap and either way, South Africa would be comfortable with it.
| "So he's a bloody-handed dictator? So what? That doesn't make him a bad bloody-handed dictator..." |
Foreign affairs minister, Stan Mudenge concurred with Khumalo that only the host country had the prerogative of inviting heads of state to the summit. But Kibazo dismissed this assertion thus: âItâs not an issue of who has the power, it is an issue of what is the common practice in the context of the Commonwealth. The countries of the Commonwealth respect the practice of the club, which is why they are still members.â It looks unlikely that Nigeria will go against the grain and invite President Mugabe to Abuja in December, analysts said. The country, which broke the jinx of military coups that litter its four decades-long post-independence history as recently as 1999 when it held multi-party elections that returned it to civilian rule, was in 1995 exactly where Zimbabwe is today â under Commonwealth suspension. |