South Africa and Nigeria will allow Zimbabwe to be readmitted to the Commonwealth group of nations when its suspension expires next month, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Monday.
Howard said a decision by South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo to cancel a meeting with him next month would effectively see Zimbabwe readmitted to the 54-nation grouping of former British colonies.
Howard is chairman of a three-nation panel that includes Mbeki and Obasanjo that was appointed by a summit of Commonwealth leaders in February 2002 to decide how the group should respond to government-sponsored violence during Zimbabwe’s presidential elections last year.
In March last year the three leaders suspended Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth for 12 months. They were to meet again next month to see if the suspension should be extended.
Howard, who is in Washington for talks on Iraq with US President George Bush, said Mbeki told him in a telephone conversation on Saturday that South Africa and Nigeria did not want to hold another meeting of the panel.
If the panel does not meet the suspension lapses, Zimbabwe would automatically be readmitted to the Commonwealth. Howard said he disagreed with the decision and wanted the suspension to continue until the next meeting of Commonwealth leaders next year.
”Zimbabwe has not done anything effectively to respond to what it was asked to do,” Howard said in a transcript released on Monday in Australia by his office.
”If anything, the situation appears to have deteriorated.”
The Australian prime minister said that as chairman of the panel he would write to Commonwealth leaders and recommend the suspension remain in place until the next Commonwealth summit. – Sapa-AP