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Suspension On, Zimbabwe Quits Commonwealth
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"This
is unacceptable. This is it. It (Zimbabwe) quits and quits it will
be," Mugabe
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ABUJA,
December 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Zimbabwe declared
Sunday, December 7, it was leaving the Commonwealth after the group of
mainly former British colonies ended three days of divisive squabbling
and decided to keep sanctions on the African state.
Meanwhile,
Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano said Monday, December 08,
southern African leaders are angry that Zimbabwe was suspended from
the Commonwealth under pressure from western nations with no
understanding of Africa.
In
a statement released to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by the Information
Ministry, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying,
"This is unacceptable. This is it. It (Zimbabwe) quits and quits
it will be".
The
Ministry said Mugabe had made the announcement when the Presidents of
Nigeria, South Africa and Jamaica telephoned him to tell him of the
Commonwealth's decision.
It
said the three leaders had tried to persuade Mugabe to keep his
southern African country within the 54-nation body. But Mugabe had
said Zimbabwe's continued suspension was unacceptable.
Commonwealth
leaders meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja agreed Sunday to
maintain the 20-month-old suspension of Zimbabwe after a row that
threatened to split the organization along racial lines.
Zimbabwe
had been kept out of the Commonwealth since March last year because of
an election which saw the veteran Mugabe voted back into office for a
fifth time amid reported vote-rigging and violence.
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Zimbabwe’s
renewed suspension was subject to review by Obasanjo
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Members
of the so-called "white Commonwealth", including Britain,
pushed for Zimbabwe to be kept out of the group, pitting them against
countries such as South Africa which wanted it to be reinstated at the
summit in Abuja.
On
Monday, commenting on the renewed suspension, Chissano told BBC
television, "We are unhappy because we cannot accept these
undemocratic procedures. We are going to express this as a
group".
Looking
tired and drained, the 65-year-old Mozambican leader, who is also the
current head of the African Union, said the Commonwealth had adopted
tactics of "pressure and punishment" while its southern
African members had been striving to engage in dialogue with Mugabe's
regime.
Mugabe
pulled out after the summit of 52 of the body's leaders agreed to
extend Zimbabwe's suspension indefinitely, subject to review by
Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo.
"We
will watch the situation in Zimbabwe very carefully. If things are
moving the way I think they are moving I will be talking in terms of
months rather than years," Obasanjo told reporters.
But
Chissano said the summit was deeply divided on the issue.
"I
don't know what will be the consequence of the decision that was taken
here," he said. "The organization did not reach this
decision by consensus."
Britain,
Australia and Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon have said
that Mugabe has done nothing to soften his autocratic rule since
Zimbabwe was expelled from the body over a disputed election in March
2002.
But
Chissano said that the older Commonwealth members could not understand
the situation of those trying to build democracy in southern African
states only recently emerging from the rule of "abject racialist
powers".
"There
are situations you don't know how to handle," he told his British
interviewer, according to AFP.
"That
is why I feel it is unfair. The process of isolation does not bring
resolution."
Mugabe,
once hailed as the liberator of his country from British rule in 1980,
is now accused – by the West, led by London - of human rights
abuses, political repression and a controversial land policy that has
helped drive his country to the brink of ruin.
Furious
at his exclusion from a summit on African soil, the 79-year-old Mugabe
seized on the occasion to score political points at home, launching
fiery tirades against white member states.
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