(TALKZIMBABWE) Zimbabwe could return to the Commonwealth

Zimbabwe could return to the Commonwealth
Philip Murombedzi
Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:56:00 +0000

THE Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) which opens on Friday in Trinidad is likely to offer a seat to Zimbabwe to return to the organisation within two years.

President Robert Mugabe pulled the country out of the Commonwealth, which he denounced as an "evil organisation", in 2003. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai supports a return to the organisation.

The organisation, a jamboree of former British colonies, has gradually lost its purpose and significance. The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office rarely mentions it in its foreign policy pronouncements.

CHOGM will send a message to Zimbabwe's leaders that a place at the table could be possible at the next gathering in late 2011.

Reports indicate that the organisation will press for political, economic and legal systems' reform in Zimbabwe to enable the return to the Commonwealth.

It was suspended in 2002, and withdrew from the organisation the following year.

In a report today for the Royal Commonwealth Society, the former Australian prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, says Zimbabwe is one of the organisation's "greatest failures".

"A number of Commonwealth leaders have been quietly involved in Zimbabwe over the years, but the Commonwealth itself could have been more influential and arguably did not marshal its resources early enough or adequately enough," Mr Fraser said.

"The slow road to recovery that we are now witnessing in Zimbabwe shows that it is high time for the Commonwealth to engage proactively with the Government of National Unity."