- (AFP) -- Zimbabwe's pull-out from the Commonwealth will
only add to the plight of the poverty-stricken state, world leaders warned
as Africa pointed the finger of blame at "unfair" policies of
the wealthy West.
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- Veteran President Robert Mugabe severed ties with the
club of former British colonies on Sunday after Commonwealth leaders voted
at a summit in Nigeria to extend Zimbabwe's suspension indefinitely, knowing
full well what the reaction would be.
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- "I think it's entirely in character sadly with President
Mugabe. I think it's a decision which he and particularly the Zimbabwean
people will come to regret," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
said.
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- Britain and other members of the "white Commonwealth"
advocated a tough line at the stormy summit negotiations in Abuja, saying
Mugabe had done nothing to soften his autocratic rule since Zimbabwe was
suspended from the body over an election in March 2002 marred by vote-rigging
and violent political repression.
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- Zimbabwe's supporters, led by South Africa's President
Thabo Mbeki, had opposed the continuing suspension, arguing that Mugabe
should be encouraged to reform by being reinstated.
-
- Mbeki has not reacted publicly to the developments, saying
only that members of the 14-member Southern Africa Development Community
would issue a statement later Monday.
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- Sunday's move has turned Zimbabwe into a pariah state,
now without a voice in the Commonwealth -- a body representing some 1.6
billion people -- and threatened with expulsion from the International
Monetary Fund.
-
- Once hailed as a hero who liberated his people from British
rule, Mugabe now presides over a state gripped by its worst economic crisis
since independence in 1980 and desperate food shortages.
-
- According to a report released Monday by the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization, some 5.5 million people, or half of the country's
population, are in need of emergency food assistance.
-
- But Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano, who is also
the current head of the African Union, warned that isolation would not
help Zimbabwe's woes and accused the Commonwealth of adopting tactics of
"pressure and punishment."
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- "The organisation did not reach this decision by
consensus," he said, adding that the older Commonwealth members could
not understand the situation of those trying to build democracy in states
only recently emerging from the rule of "abject racialist powers".
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- "That is why I feel it is unfair. The process of
isolation does not bring resolution."
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- Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had struggled
to prevent the Zimbabwe crisis from overshadowing his summit, said the
door to Zimbabwe remained open and denied the summit had been a waste of
time.
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- "The measures that we've put in place to facilitate
the quick return to the Commonwealth remain as relevant as if they had
not decided to quit," he said.
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- Zimbabwe is only the second country to withdraw from
the Commonwealth after Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, pulled
South Africa out in 1961 because of criticism of his regime.
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- Obasanjo, as current Commonwealth chair, had been tasked
by the summit to monitor progress in Zimbabwe along with a six-nation panel
comprising the leaders of Australia, Canada, India, Jamaica and South Africa.
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- In Harare, Zimbabwe's embattled opposition party accused
Mugabe of acting illegally and called on the world to help bring democracy.
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- "Mugabe still wants to play politics at the expense
of the people," said Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Secretary
General Welshman Ncube.
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- Australia defended the Commonwealth decision, saying
Zimbabwe was still not abiding by the principles of democracy, rule of
law and human rights enshrined in the group that emerged from the vestiges
of the British empire.
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- "I think it is always dreadful when a country decides
to go but the decision the Commonwealth took yesterday was the only decision
consistent with Commonwealth standards," Prime Minister John Howard
said.
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- New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark also placed
the blame at Mugabe's door, saying: "Zimbabwe's government seems determined
to thumb its nose at international opinion.
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- "The Zimbabwe government's decision to withdraw
is not a disaster for the Commonwealth. It is an indictment of Zimbabwe's
government that it has chosen this path," she added.
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