Robert Mugabe
JAMAICA HAS backed a decision by Commonwealth foreign ministers not to suspend Zimbabwe from the 54-member association, arguing that a suspension would have an "undesirable effect" on upcoming elections in the Southern African nation.
Wilton Dyer, Foreign Ministry spokesman, suggested yesterday that cutting off Zimbabwe would leave the Commonwealth with very few options in its bid to secure free and fair presidential elections which take place on March 9 and 10.
"It might have an undesirable effect on the election outcome," Mr. Dyer told The Gleaner.
Don McKinnon, Commonwealth Secretary-General, who was in Jamaica last week to brief Prime Minister P.J. Patterson on the March 2-5 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia, has defended the decision not to suspend Zimbabwe.
Disengaging from Zimbabwe would leave the Commonwealth little room to apply any pressure on the Government to implement reforms, Mr. McKinnon was reported as saying in press reports.
On Wednesday, the eight-member Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the organisation's democracy watchdog, rejected suspension of Zimbabwe and called instead for the immediate deployment of international observers for the March elections.
Reuters news agency reported that Britain got support for its stance from Australia, Canada and Barbados, but was opposed by Botswana, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Nigeria.
"The issue that is on the table at the moment is to ensure that we have free and fair elections," Mompati Merafhe, CMAG chairman and Botswana's Foreign Minister, was reported as telling a press briefing after all-day talks in London.
Just hours before the Commonwealth's decision, riot police in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, arrested three reporters who were part of a media protest against new legislation which seeks
to tighten control on local and foreign media.
The introduction of the draft legislation is the latest controversy to engulf the Mugabe administration which has been heavily criticised at home and internationally for its policy of seizing white farms and turning them over to blacks.
However, President Mugabe, who took Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) into independence in 1980 has argued that his land redistribution policy is merely putting right the historical injustice which saw white settlers appropriating much of the
country's best farmland during British rule.
