The head of a Commonwealth committee that suspended Zimbabwe in March, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, warned on Tuesday that Commonwealth countries may impose sanctions on Zimbabwe.
His warning followed a decision by Zimbabwe to deport the Harare-based correspondent of Britain’s Guardian newspaper following his acquittal on charges of publishing falsehoods under Zimbabwe’s tough new media laws.
Howard said he would discuss the issue of Zimbabwe with his fellow members on Commonwealth troika, South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo.
”If we don’t get some response from what the Commonwealth troika decided earlier this year from Zimbabwe, then countries like Australia have no alternative other than to look at some action on
the sanctions front,” Howard told told commercial radio here.
The Commonwealth announced a one-year suspension of Zimbabwe’s membership of the 53-nation group on March 20, saying the violence-scarred election that month failed to reflect the will of voters.
The vote extended President Robert Mugabe’s 22-year grip on power by a further six years.
The decision to suspend was taken in London following a damning report by a Commonwealth observer team which said the election had been held in a climate of fear following a campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters.
Howard at the time ruled out sanctions in the short term, but called on Zimbabwe’s leaders to hold new presidential elections.
He also said Australia would not follow the European Union’s lead and impose immediate sanctions, but believed the combined effect of the Commonwealth action would be to set up processes and pressures that could possibly deliver change and reform.
However, Howard said on Tuesday that if there was no response by Zimbabwe to international demands that it improve its democratic practices, there may be no alternative but to move to sanctions.
He said he had been opposed to sanctions against apartheid South Africa because they harmed those at the bottom of the economic ladder.
”But unless there’s some response then the rest of the world has no alternative but to look at this kind of action,” he said.
Labour has repeatedly called for Australia to follow the European Union and the United States by imposing targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime. – Sapa-AFP