London, Harare | Wednesday
ZIMBABWE will be allowed to attend next month’s Commonwealth summit in Australia, despite concerns about the ”harassment” of its people, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Tuesday.
Concluding a two-day meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in London, ministers voiced their concerns that the situation under President Robert Mugabe – widely blamed for political violence against white farmers – had not improved.
”The problems in Zimbabwe simply cannot be ignored by the Commonwealth,” said Downer. ”The harassment and acts of violence are a matter of enormous concern in our country.”
Yet unlike Pakistan, barred from attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane, the African nation will be allowed to attend, although only after two further meetings to review the violence that is blighting the former British colony.
The ministerial group was established by Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1995 to deal with serious or persistent violations of the Harare Commonwealth Declaration.
The declaration, made in Zimbabwe in 1991, set down guiding principles for the 54 member countries of the Commonwealth, including: a commitment to international peace and democracy; equal rights for citizens regardless of sex, race, colour, creed or political belief; the promotion of sustainable development; provision of education and health care; and protection of the environment.
Measures that the group can take range from quiet diplomacy and statements of concern to suspension from the Commonwealth.
Reading from a prepared statement at the close of the two-day meeting in London Tuesday, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said Commonwealth ministers would continue to discuss Zimbabwe at a specially convened meeting later this week in Abuja, Nigeria. Developments would be reviewed at a final meeting immediately prior to the heads of government meeting on Oct. 5.
”They (the ministers) hoped that the Abuja meeting would make progress towards reaching a solution which would benefit all the people of Zimbabwe,” McKinnon said.
Downer said the Australian government had turned down a request from the Zimbabwe government to bring its own armed security guards to the Brisbane summit.
”We have explained that it would be entirely inappropriate for President Mugabe to be accompanied by armed security guards from Zimbabwe,” Downer said. ”We will provide appropriate security.”
During the meeting at Marlborough House in central London, ministers finalised their report, which will be presented to Commonwealth heads of government in Brisbane next month.
Meantime, the growing number of farm workers displaced by land invasions in Zimbabwe has prompted agricultural groups to call for immediate humanitarian assistance to deal with the crisis, the UN’s Integrated Regional Information Networks reported.
”There’s certainly a role here for international organisations, these people urgently need feeding programmes and shelter,” Godfrey Magaramomba of the Farm Community Trust (FCT), a Harare-based NGO, said on Tuesday.
The FCT has been trying to assist former farm labourers in Hwedza, 100km southeast of the capital.
Self-styled war veterans and Zanu-PF supporters evicted about 2 000 families from 14 commercial farms in the area two weeks ago.
Magaramomba said that those evicted were now living in appalling conditions in makeshift camps and squatter settlements along main roads.
”We’ve been held up from helping these people by pro-government provincial authorities and by war veterans on the ground,” he added. Evicted farm workers have told FCT that after being labelled opposition supporters by war veterans, they are then told not just to leave the farms, but to leave the area completely.
Analysts said that making large numbers of farm workers destitute effectively disenfranchised them.
”Kicking people out of where they live and vote appears to be a new tactic aimed at diluting opposition support in rural areas,” one observer said. Over 2 800 commercial farms have been listed for compulsory acquisition. – Sapa, Irin
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