Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on Tuesday said the country should remain suspended from the Commonwealth.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in March last year over its poor human rights record and President Robert Mugabe’s re-election in a vote that was widely condemned as rigged.
When the initial 12-month suspension ended in March this year, the Commonwealth announced the southern African country’s suspension would be extended until December when the 54 Commonwealth countries hold their annual meeting in Nigeria.
”Because there has not been any improvement on any of the benchmarks set by the Commonwealth, we don’t see any reason why Zimbabwe’s suspension should be lifted,” said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
He said the government had violated the Harare declaration on good governance.
He urged that the Commonwealth ”position must be enforced until there is meaningful change in the behaviour of the regime”.
”The crisis in Zimbabwe is not about land, not about Britain, it is about governance,” he told a news conference.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart, Olusegun Obasanjo, sit on a troika chaired by Australian Prime Minister John Howard tasked with overseeing the Commonwealth’s response to alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki has been pushing for the lifting of Zimbabwe’s suspension from the grouping of mainly former British colonies.
The MDC leader welcomed overtures by Mugabe calling on the opposition to consider settling political differences with his government internally ”as sons of the soil” without seeking foreign help.
”The public statement by President Mugabe that he would like to talk to the MDC, is welcome, but is only welcome if that speech can only be translated into action,” he said.
”Let’s see The Daily News ban lifted … and all the restrictions that are being imposed lifted, so that we can demonstrate that there is seriousness,” he said.
The forced closure of The Daily News earlier this month was politically motivated, he said.
”We view the closure of The Daily News as an attack, as an attack on the MDC. The paper has just become a victim of the whole strategy to emasculate the independent communication channels.
He said his party did not own the Daily News, neither was the paper a mouthpiece of the opposition, ”but we believe in the spirit of freedom of association”.
”Any closure of any newspaper is an affront to democracy,” he said. – Sapa-AFP