Australian Prime Minister John Howard told BBC radio on Wednesday that Zimbabwe should be fully suspended from the Commonwealth.
Currently Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s regime is suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth, one step short of full suspension.
Howard, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo are the members of a troika monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe. The two African members of the troika disagree with Howard.
Howard told the BBC: ”I was arguing with the troika we should move immediately to fully suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth because of the failure of Zimbabwe to show any sensitivity at all to Commonwealth opinion.
”I’m concerned, if we just remain mute and indifferent, that democratic governance, which is a central Commonwealth value, will just go by the board,” he added.
Howard said he had spoken to British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday but did not reveal details of the conversation.
Mugabe’s land reform policies, carried out through violent occupations and dispossession of white farmers without compensation, has drawn strong criticism in the west. – Sapa-DPA