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Commonwealth 'a no for Zim'
20/11/2007 08:29 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe appears in no rush to end his self-imposed exile from the Commonwealth as his fellow heads of state prepare to meet up on African soil this week.
The former guerrilla leader walked out on the club of predominantly one-time British colonies when it announced plans to extend Zimbabwe's suspension in December 2003 after flawed presidential polls.
"We shall never go back to this evil organisation," Mugabe later told supporters, adding that the decision to quit was to foil British attempts to "enslave us, to make us puppets.
"When we left we did not say we shall return. The door through which we left is now locked."
'We lost nothing'
Four years later, the chances of Zimbabwe returning to the club of nations any time soon appeared as remote as ever with the government quite happy to miss this weekend's meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
Deputy information minister Bright Matonga said: "We lost nothing by pulling out of the Commonwealth.
"Anyway what's the Commonwealth apart from a club dominated by Australia and Britain? We don't miss it and we don't wish to rejoin it."
Mugabe had been scornful of the Commonwealth since the parting of the ways, at one point berating Secretary-General Don McKinnon, a former New Zealand foreign minister, as "a progeny of criminal decent" whose ancestors had been deported by the British "because they were robbers and murderers".
This was in response to McKinnon's statement that there was no end in sight to Zimbabwe's economic and political crises saying "we don't see anything coming out that suggests change is really imminent".
Personal, political decision
Even though the Commonwealth included 17 fellow African countries and other traditional allies such as Malaysia, Mugabe had been notably more relaxed over his absence from Uganda than an European Union-Africa summit in Lisbon next month to which he secured an invitation only after major diplomatic wrangling.
Political commentator Bill Saidi said Zimbabwe had lost "immensely" after severing its ties with the Commonwealth, but chances of Mugabe making an about-turn were remote.
Saidi said: "This was a personal and political decision, which was not based on rationale and we are paying the price.
"We could be benefiting especially now with our economy in doldrums from aid coming from fellow Commonwealth countries.
"The social services in our cities are in shambles because we no longer have twinning agreements we used to have with cities in other Commonwealth countries. But, Mugabe will never admit this and wants everyone to believe his Look East policy is working."
Rejected by his former western allies, which imposed targeted sanctions in 2002, Mugabe launched a Look East policy centred on forging closer ties with Asian countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and India.
- AFP
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