END UK TIES: ZIM STATE NEWSPAPER HARARE 9 December 2003 Sapa
Zimbabwe's state press called on President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday to sever diplomatic ties with Britain and Australia, blaming British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government for all the southern African country's economic and political crises.
"The time has now come for Zimbabwe to fully engage Britain head-on by cutting all diplomatic ties with the former colonial master and its sidekick, Australia," the government-controlled daily Herald said in a front-page editorial.
Mugabe announcement on Sunday night that he was withdrawing Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth after it decided to continue Zimbabwe's suspension from the 54-member association indefinitely.
The Herald is controlled directly from Mugabe's office.
Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard were seen as the leading protagonists for Zimbabwe's extended suspension.
Zimbabwe was first suspended in April last year after the Commonwealth found that Mugabe had rigged his victory in presidential elections a month before.
The Herald said that Mugabe's decision to pull out of the Commonwealth "only deals with the symptoms and not the cause of the disease."
"The issue is not the Commonwealth or any other third parties but Britain and its Prime Minister, Tony Blair."
It said Britain had brought about "sanctions," imposed by the European Union, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, which had "savaged" Zimbabwe's economy.
The Herald went on: "The country's political landscape has been put into disarray following the creation of the British-sponsored (opposition) Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and a host of
Non-governmental organisations that have sought to cause mayhem and instability in the country by staging foolish demonstrations and media campaigns designed to precipitate instability and undermine
The Zimbabwean government."
It said that international concern about human rights, democracy, press freedom and the independence of the judiciary were "a smokescreen to maintain the colonial grip on Zimbabwe".
"Kicking Britain out of Zimbabwe and withdrawing from London will have its repercussions, but it will be a worthwhile price to pay and a true test of sovereignty," the Herald said.
"Smart" sanctions have been imposed since 2002, and apply exclusively to Mugabe and members of his immediate ruling clique.
Diplomats point out they go no further than banning them from travel and from holding assets in the countries imposing the sanctions.
Britain, the colonial authority until Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, has been the government's largest aid donor and currently is the biggest contributor to famine relief needed to feed 5.5-million
people facing starvation, and has given British sterling 26 million since September 2001.
Cultural ties run deep between the two countries, and Britain has become home to an estimated 100,000 illegal Zimbabwean economic refugees fleeing economic chaos at home.
The government routinely blames the British Labour government for its problems, accusing it of spying, sabotage and even of hijacking Zimbabwe's fuel supplies on the high seas.
International and local civil rights groups have recorded thousands of cases of murder, torture, assault, illegal detention and other human rights abuses by the government and ruling party militias since 2000 when Mugabe, fearing imminent defeat in parliamentary elections launched a campaign of repression to try and destroy the pro-democracy MDC.
The Commonwealth secretariat reported before the weekend's Commonwealth summit that Mugabe had done nothing to carry out democratic and electoral reforms he agreed to since the suspension was imposed.
Mugabe, who turns 80 in February and is now in his 24th year of rule, last week denounced calls for him to retire. He said he intended to stay in power at least until 2008.
SUSPENSION OF ZIMBABWE FROM THE COUNCILS OF THE COMMONWEALTH
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
9 December 2003
STATEMENT ON THE CONTINUATION OF THE SUSPENSION OF
ZIMBABWE FROM THE COUNCILS OF THE COMMONWEALTH
We, the SADC members of the Commonwealth supported by Some members of the Commonwealth, wish to voice our strong disagreement with the decision not to allow Zimbabwe back into the Councils of the Commonwealth as reflected in the Abuja CHOGM Statement on Zimbabwe.
We are concerned that the matter of Zimbabwe's participation seems to have been prejudged, considering the pronouncements made by some members prior to the finalisation of this matter.
This decision will do nothing to assist the people of Zimbabwe overcome their present difficulties. As we warned, it has resulted in Zimbabwe withdrawing from the Commonwealth.
The present situation in Zimbabwe calls for engagement by the Commonwealth and not isolation and further punishment. We reaffirm our determination to continue to assist the people of Zimbabwe.
We also wish to express our displeasure and deep concern with the dismissive, intolerant and rigid attitude displayed by some members of the Commonwealth during the deliberations. The Commonwealth has always operated on the basis of consensus. We fear that this attitude is destined to undermine the spirit that makes the Commonwealth a unique family of nations. This development does not augur well for the future of the Commonwealth.
Issued on behalf of Lesotho as Chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.
Department of Foreign Affairs
--------------------------------------------------------------
JOHANNESBURG 9 December 2003 Sapa-AFP
AFRICA SPLIT OVER ZIMBABWE SUSPENSION AMID ALLEGATIONS OF RACISM
Zimbabwe's suspension and ensuing pull-out from the Commonwealth has split Africa, with some peers of embattled President Robert Mugabe accusing the "white Commonwealth" of bullying and others backing the move.
Mugabe, possibly facing his bleakest hour, severed ties with the club of mainly former British colonies on Sunday after Commonwealth leaders voted at a summit in Nigeria to extend Zimbabwe's suspension indefinitely.
Zimbabwe was initially suspended over a presidential election in March 2002 marred by vote-rigging and violent political repression that was won by Mugabe, a veteran politician in power since 1980 when his country gained independence from Britain.
The reaction across the continent after Harare's dramatic weekend pull-out was divided but some of Mugabe's neighbours - some bearing the brunt of an economic meltdown in Zimbabwe which is
seeing tens of thousands of illegal immigrants streaming across their borders - are accusing the "white Commonwealth" of forcing its will.
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, who is also the rotating head of the African Union, said the older Commonwealth members had adopted tactics of "pressure and punishment".
"The organisation did not reach this decision by consensus," he said, adding that they could not understand the situation of those trying to build democracy in states only recently emerging from the
rule of "abject racialist powers".
Zimbabwe is now virtually a pariah state, threatened with expulsion from the International Monetary Fund, and with Mugabe and his associates barred from visiting Europe and the United States.
Themba Dlamini, the prime minister of the tiny South African mountain kingdom of Lesotho, struck a warning note even before the Commonwealth decision was announced.
"It must take into cognisance that Africans have an obligation of deciding their future so the western world must not use its financial muscle to dictate terms to Africans," he said.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa also accused rich Commonwealth nations of riding roughshod over the others.
"The Western countries bulldozed the suspension of Zimbabwe partly because of their economic muscle," he was quoted as saying in the South African press on Tuesday.
Mwanawasa, however, said no SADC member would quit the Commonwealth in protest but would "complain from within to make our grievances known."
However, according to press reports in South Africa on Tuesday, some African nations including Ghana and Kenya backed Zimbabwe's suspension.
A pointer to the African divide over Zimbabwe is the fact that a bid by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who advocates a "soft policy" on Zimbabwe, to unseat Commonwealth Secretary General Don
McKinnon was defeated 40-11, meaning that many African countries voted to retain the New Zealander at the Commonwealth helm.
Mbeki and other southern African leaders had opposed the suspension, arguing that Mugabe should be encouraged to reform by being reinstated.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who hosted the Commonwealth summit, had earlier supported Mugabe in times of trouble.
This time round, he stressed that the door remained open for Zimbabwe to return.
"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.
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.
ZIM-DIPLOMACY
HARARE 9 December 2003 Sapa-AFP
ZIMBABWE'S DETERIORATING RELATIONS WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD
Zimbabwe finds itself out on a limb after President Robert Mugabe decided to withdraw the country from the Commonwealth.
Relations with the rest of the world, and in particular the former colonial power Britain, have been strained to breaking point over the past three years or so as Western governments have accused Mugabe of election rigging and worse.
Following is a chronology of how the situation has evolved:
2001
Jan 25: Sweden decides to reduce development aid due to human rights abuses.
March 1: Britain withdraws military instructors based in Zimbabwe since 1979.
15: European Union denounces continuing campaign of "murder, violence and threats"
May 22: South Africa condemns political violence.
May 25: US Secretary of State Colin Powell warns it is time for political and economic sanctions against Harare.
Aug 16: Denmark freezes its aid programme to Zimbabwe.
2002
Jan 10: Parliament passes controversial bills on public security, designed to muzzle the opposition, and modifying electoral law, restricting the right to vote of certain sections of the population.
Nobel peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu says Mugabe has "gone bonkers in a big way" and the country was "on the slippery slope of perdition".
Jan 23: British PM Tony Blair dubs Mugabe "a disgrace".
Jan 31: New Zealand calls for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the Commonwealth. Harare denounces the "archaic colonial relationship" the EU and the Commonwealth are trying to impose on the country and calls the Commonwealth refusal to suspend Zimbabwe "a slap in the face" for Britain.
Feb 16: Pierre Schori, the Swedish head of the EU election monitoring team, is expelled as Mugabe calls his behaviour "dishonest".
Feb 18: EU imposes sanctions against Mugabe and his regime and withdraws observers.
Feb 19: US follows EU lead and imposes sanctions of its own.
Harare insists no "hostile action" will impede its defence of independence and sovereignty. South Africa calls EU decision "regrettable" and "difficult to fathom".
Feb 23: US imposes travel ban on Mugabe and his closest aids.
Mar 2: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Coolum, Australia, fails to back British plea to suspend Zimbabwe as African nations vote against. Mugabe says policy of reconciliation with whites after independence was a mistake.
Mar 6: Mugabe unilaterally decrees new electoral laws under which only government election monitors are authorised to take action on irregularities. Britain's Tony Blair urges Mugabe not to cling to power if defeated and US Secretary of State Colin Powell dubs Mugabe "an anachronism".
Mar 11: Mugabe re-elected in a presidential poll observers claim was rigged after a campaign dogged by violence.
Mar 19: Commonwealth troika, made up of Australia, Nigeria and South Africa, suspends Zimbabwe from the organisation's council of ministers for a year.
Jul 22: EU extends sanctions and draws up a list of a further 52 names of Mugabe associates, including his wife Grace, to be refused visas and whose assets are frozen.
Aug 20: US expresses a wish for Mugabe to step down, blaming him for the famine in the country due to policies which amount to "madness".
Sept 6: British foreign minister Jack Straw likens Zimbabwe to "failed states" such as Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Oct 13: Australian government imposes sanctions.
2003
Feb 18: EU renews its sanctions for a further year.
Feb 20-21: Mugabe controversially travels to Paris for the Franco-African summit only after President Jacques Chirac obtains a waiver to the EU ban.
Mar 7: US freezes Mugabe's assets and those of 76 other Zimbabwean citizens.
Mar 16: Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth extended until December.
Apr 9: The 10 new EU member states and two prospective candidate nations endorse sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Oct 28: Walter Kansteiner, US assistant secretary of State for African affairs, expresses concern for Zimbabwe which is says is "on the brink of disaster".
Dec 2: Mugabe says his country should examine whether it stays in the Commonwealth or whether it should turn to China as "a new alternative direction".
Dec 4: International Monetary Fund initiates process of expelling Zimbabwe, citing a lack of cooperation and arrears of more than 270 million dollars (224 million euros) running back almost three years.
Dec 7: Commonwealth leaders decide to maintain Zimbabwe's suspension for an unlimited period. Mugabe announces Zimbabwe leaving the Commonwealth.
Dec 8: Zimbabwe's withdrawal from the Commonwealth is a decision Mugabe "and particularly the Zimbabwean people will come to regret", according to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard defends his tough stand on Zimbabwe saying if the Commonwealth had given in "the values that it is meant to stand for would have been seen as quite wasted and irrelevant".
Dec 9: Members of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) which are also members of the Commonwealth condem Zimbabwe's suspension, blaming it on the "dismissive, intolerant and rigid attitude" of some member countries.
And finally from the dog´s mouth:
LONDON 9 December 2003 Sapa-AFP
BLAIR RAPS ZIMBABWE'S MUGABE FOR QUITTING THE COMMONWEALTH
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday strongly criticised Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's decision to quit the Commonwealth and said the democratic situation in the country had worsened.
"Where Pakistan has moved forward since the Commonwealth leaders last met (in March, 2003) ... Zimbabwe, however, has gone backwards," Blair told the House of Commons in a statement on the weekend's Commonwealth summit in Nigeria.
At the meeting Commonwealth leaders decided that Pakistan and Zimbabwe should remain suspended from the 54-member collection of mainly former British colonies.
Blair said that Mugabe's reaction - to withdraw the country from the Commonwealth - showed clearly that he did not accept the Commonwealth's democratic principles.
Isolation of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party "will be increased", Blair said.
Blair said that since Zimbabwe had first been suspended in March 2002 there had been more violence and intimidation against the opposition, lawyers and human rights activists - "indeed against anyone speaking up against President Mugabe's oppressive policies".
The country was being driven further and further into chaos by "ruinous economic policies" and half the population now relied on food aid, with Britain the leading cash donor.
"The outcome in Abuja was hard fought but in the end a victory for Commonwealth values," Blair said.
"There will always be a place or a democratic Zimbabwe in the Commonwealth," he added.
And more from the same dog:
LONDON 9 December 2003 Sapa-AP
BLAIR HAILS CONTINUED COMMONWEALTH SUSPENSION OF ZIMBABWE
Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday hailed the Commonwealth's decision to continue the suspension of Zimbabwe as a victory for the bloc's values and said that the African nation had gone backward since it was first excluded last year.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe quit the Commonwealth Sunday, hours after other heads of government extended indefinitely his nation's 18-month suspension while meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.
Blair, updating the House of Commons on the weekend summit, said it was "inconceivable" for Zimbabwe to be readmitted.
"The outcome in Abuja was hard fought but in the end a victory for Commonwealth values," Blair told Parliament. The debate over Zimbabwe's future had threatened a split between Western and developing-world members of Britain's former colonial empire.
The prime minister said Mugabe's subsequent decision to withdraw from the 54-nation bloc showed the Zimbabwean leader did not accept Commonwealth principles.
But, to cheers from lawmakers, Blair stressed that "there will always be a place for a democratic Zimbabwe in the Commonwealth."
Blair said that since Zimbabwe was first suspended there had been more violence and intimidation against the opposition, lawyers and human rights activists, "indeed against anyone speaking up against President Mugabe's oppressive policies."
The country was being driven further and further into chaos by "ruinous economic policies" and half the population now relied on food aid, Blair said.
"In these circumstances, I and others argued that it was inconceivable that Zimbabwe should be readmitted to the Councils of the Commonwealth, and that ... it should remain suspended until we
saw concrete evidence of a return to democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law."
That outcome, backed by the other 19 African members of the Commonwealth, Blair said, gave the lie to one of Mugabe's "most outrageous claims - that the Commonwealth's approach to Zimbabwe is
a white conspiracy led by the U.K. against black Africans."
Zimbabwe's main state newspaper on Tuesday rejected Britain's concerns about human rights and democracy as "a smoke screen to maintain the colonial grip on Zimbabwe."
The Herald, a government mouthpiece, said in a front-page editorial that it was time to cut diplomatic ties with "the former colonial master and its sidekick, Australia."
The Commonwealth has banned Zimbabwe from its decision-making councils since 2002, after he was accused of using massive force and fraud to win re-election and continue his more than two-decade rule.
The bloc, conceived in the 1930s around shared values of human rights and democracy, has a history - unlike the U.N. and other global decision-making bodies - of suspending and shaming members for abuses.
Blair also told the Commons that the Commonwealth summit had agreed on the urgent need to relaunch world trade talks and underlined the necessity of tackling the spread of HIV/AIDS, which posed a "grave threat" to health and sustainable development.
