Zim tops Commonwealth crises
2003-11-27 08:33
Johannesburg - The exclusion of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe from a Commonwealth summit in Nigeria has papered over a rift between the "white Commonwealth" and prominent African members, but they remain at loggerheads on how to resolve the crisis in the southern African country.
Host President Olusegun Obasanjo visited Harare earlier this month ahead of the December 5-9 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Abuja to consult with the Harare government and the opposition.
Mugabe seized that occasion to declare "We look forward to attending the Abuja CHOGM" after having denounced the leaders of Australia, Britain, and New Zealand as "white racists" for opposing his attendance.
But on Tuesday the axe fell, with Obasanjo telling reporters that Mugabe "will not have an invitation".
Zimbabwe was suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth in March 2002.
Commonwealth spokesperson Joel Kibazo said in London on Wednesday that "there isn't one African country that has exactly the same position on Zimbabwe as another".
'People lump Africans together'
"There's a range of about three or four positions," he said as he flew out to Abuja. "In actual fact, Africans are quite disappointed that people lump them all together. Countries have different positions because countries have interests, sometimes it's for geographical reasons, sometimes it's for political or ideological reasons.
McKinnon said recently: "Our attempts at establishing a dialogue have been spurned and we have seen the situation in Zimbabwe deteriorate continuously," but on Wednesday Mbeki told the South African National Assembly that he was convinced the government and opposition in Zimbabwe "have made progress" in informal talks.
One of the most extraordinary manifestations of the rift on Zimbabwe came at a summit of southern African leaders in August in Dar es Salaam, where hundreds of delegates greeted the 79-year-old Mugabe with shouts, applause and ululation.
Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa declared that US and European Union sanctions, which include travel bans on the Zimbabwean leadership, were unwarranted and ineffectual, and called for them to be lifted.
Influential African countries such as South Africa have been criticised by Western governments for their policy of "quiet diplomacy" towards Mugabe.
Botswanan President Festus Mogae has been the only African leader to publicly attack Mugabe over his policies, saying last year that Zimbabwe's woes were the result of a "drought of good governance", but he has kept a low profile since then.
The situation in Zimbabwe continues meanwhile to worsen, with inflation running above 525%, food production down after the confiscation of white farmers' land, unemployment at 70%, and an estimated 5.5 million Zimbabweans - half the population - in need of emergency food aid.