From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Axis Of Evil: Zimbabwe HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- [The North has got to stop it in Harare before it reaches the heartland of America.] Wednesday January 30 7:17 AM ET Britain Presses Commonwealth to Suspend Zimbabwe By Dominic Evans LONDON (Reuters) - Britain urged Commonwealth foreign ministers Wednesday to suspend Zimbabwe from the organization to punish President Robert Mugabe for his pre-election crackdown on the media and political opponents. Suspension would be a largely symbolic gesture of public admonition by a peer group with few practical consequences. Speaking before a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the body's democracy watchdog, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he wanted Zimbabwe's immediate suspension from the Commonwealth's main decision-making bodies. He said he would also ask the ministers to recommend formally to the Commonwealth summit meeting in Australia in March that Britain's former colony be completely suspended. ``I will be arguing ... for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth and for there to be a recommendation to the Commonwealth (summit) for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the Commonwealth itself,?? Straw told reporters. But he said it was not clear if the eight ministers gathering in London could reach the required consensus. Britain, Australia and Canada are Zimbabwe's most vocal critics in CMAG. The other five members -- Botswana, Barbados, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Nigeria -- have been more cautious. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said this week that no action taken by the Commonwealth was likely to influence Mugabe before Zimbabwe's March 9-10 presidential elections, when he will seek to extend his 22-year rule. But diplomats say such moves have been taken in the past only against Commonwealth countries where governments have been overthrown in military coups, and that action against Zimbabwe would send a powerful message about upholding the rule of law. International concern over the two-year wave of seizures of Zimbabwe's white-owned farms has grown in the run-up to the elections as Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party cracked down on political opponents and imposed restrictions on media. CMAG suspended Pakistan and Fiji from the councils of the Commonwealth following military coups. Fiji was readmitted last month but Pakistan has remained on the sidelines since President Pervez Musharraf seized power in October 1999. COMMONWEALTH ``WENT EXTRA MILE?? The Commonwealth meeting comes two days after the European Union (news - web sites) ratcheted up pressure on Mugabe. EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to impose a travel ban on the top 20 individuals in Mugabe's inner circle and their families and to freeze their foreign assets if Zimbabwe prevented the deployment of EU election observers. Mugabe, who has accused Britain of orchestrating a campaign to demonize his country, said he would accept foreign election observers -- except for Britons. Straw said the Commonwealth had already given Mugabe many chances to change course, most recently at a meeting in Nigeria last year. ``We and the rest of the Commonwealth went the extra mile at Abuja in September where Zimbabwe agreed with the rest of the Commonwealth that they would stick to the clear principles of ... freedom of speech, human rights, (and) allowing oppositions to operate effectively,?? he said. ``They have patently failed to do so.?? _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
