Locking Zim out 'not easy'

2003-12-01 15:23

Lagos - Nigeria's decision not to invite Zimbabwe to the upcoming Commonwealth summit in Abuja "was not easy", President Olusegun Obasanjo said.

"It was not an easy decision. I believed I would be more wrong to invite Zimbabwe than not to invite Zimbabwe. I prefer to be on the side of not inviting Zimbabwe," he said late on Sunday in a live television interview.

Obasanjo said the decision not to invite Zimbabwe to the summit, due to begin on Friday in the Nigerian capital Abuja, was largely driven by the failure to agree on the issue by a Commonwealth troika for the southern African country.

Obasanjo sits on the troika together with President Thabo Mbeki and Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

"We could not come to a compromise. So as we had not concluded at the last meeting, then it would be wrong for me to invite Zimbabwe," he added.

Obasanjo said that the summit of Commonwealth heads of state and governments (Chogm) will also deliberate on Zimbabwe's suspension from the 54-nation grouping.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth councils in March last year following a presidential election which many outside observers said was marred by ballot-rigging and intimidation.

Since then, leading Commonwealth members have disagreed sharply over the issue, with Nigeria and South Africa seeking to encourage reforms by inviting Zimbabwe back into the fold and Australia urging its full expulsion.

- AFP