Howard Barrell
India was the country largely responsible for quashing Commonwealth plans at last weekend’s summit in Durban to step up monitoring of member states’ human rights records.
Strongly supported by Malaysia, India led resistance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) to recommendations that the 54-nation grouping increase its ability to act against members who ignored democratic norms.
Commonwealth diplomatic sources say Indian officials were concerned that their country could come under fire over the status of Kashmir, the scene of strong Indian security action to ward off separatist pressures and attempts by Pakistan to take over the territory.
Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Indian prime minister, was initially quite amenable to stronger human rights monitoring of Commmonwealth countries, but his officials convinced him that this might leave India vulnerable to criticism over Kashmir, well-informed sources at the Durban summit said.
The Indian resistance meant countries with more dubious human rights records, such as Zimbabwe and Kenya, could keep silent on the emotive issue. The strength of Indian and Malaysian resistance meant that President Thabo Mbeki, who chaired the summit, could not achieve consensus around the issue. Consensus is the basis on which the Commonwealth usually takes decisions.
The recommendations on stronger human rights monitoring were contained in a 102-page confidential report to the summit from the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (C-MAG), which consists of the foreign ministers of Barbados, Botswana, Canada, Ghana, Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. C-MAG was set up at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in New Zealand in 1995 “to deal with serious and persistent violations” of the democratic values of the Commonwealth.
The confidential report to the Durban summit suggested “C-MAG should also be [appraised] of situations where there is not a complete derogation from democracy and constitutional rule, but where there is a clear breakdown of democracy, or otherwise serious or persistent violations of Commonwealth fundamental political values”.
Stronger human rights monitoring will now be among a number of issues to be considered by a newly created high level group, of heads of government, chaired by Mbeki, tasked over the next two years with planning the Commonwealth’s future.
The Indian resistance saved Zimbabwe further embarrassment over and above that caused the country by the extraordinary behaviour in Durban of its President, Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe, who made repeated intemperate and ill-considered statements to journalists about British Prime Minister Tony Blair, stayed away from a number of events and dismissed any criticism of him as “the language of homosexuals”.
Mbeki made a pointedly ironic reference to Mugabe’s behaviour in the closing moments of the last session of the summit on Monday morning. Speaking before live television cameras, Mbeki said: “I was very pleased that, because I threatened him at the beginning, President Mugabe was very, very disciplined – he didn’t cause any disruptions at all.”