Posted on 05/02/2003 12:09:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The head of the Commonwealth admitted on Thursday that his efforts to pressure Zimbabwe into adopting political reforms had failed and he blamed resistance from the government of President Robert Mugabe.
The 54-nation grouping of mainly former British colonies has suspended the impoverished southern African state until this December in a protest against alleged election-rigging and the seizure of white-owned farms for landless blacks.
But Zimbabwe has not responded to appeals for reform and the Commonwealth says the internal situation has in fact worsened since the suspension was first imposed in March 2002.
"It's a classic case where we have failed. I claim we deserve an A minus for effort over Zimbabwe but about a D minus for achievement," Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon told Reuters in an interview.
"But given that, no international organization has caused a change in Zimbabwe government policy and I don't regard that we therefore are out on our own in terms of not being able to achieve anything. Nevertheless we remain engaged, we want to see things happen there that would benefit the Zimbabwe people."
Zimbabwe is gripped by its worst crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, with record unemployment and inflation, and shortages of fuel and foreign currency.
The Commonwealth is calling for political dialogue, national reconciliation and what it calls genuine land reforms but McKinnon said the grouping had had little success.
"It hasn't worked. I've tried to send ministerial missions there -- failed. I've tried to send special envoys there -- failed. I've tried to go there myself -- failed," he said.
"I don't know what the answer is but like many things, unless there's a willingness on the (other) party to join in these aspirations, not a lot is going to happen."
The question of Zimbabwe's suspension has split the Commonwealth, which only reluctantly agreed in March 2003 to extend the sanctions until a summit of leaders in the Nigerian capital Abuja in December.
"That doesn't mean to say the problem is going to go away. It still has to be dealt with comprehensively at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting," McKinnon said.
The leaders of South Africa, Nigeria and Malawi will travel to Harare next week to urge dialogue between the government and opposition.
"They know full well the concerns of Commonwealth countries and Commonwealth leaders. I hope they can have a fruitful and useful discussion with President Mugabe. We not only wish to see commitments to changes but the implementation of changes," said McKinnon.
Mugabe accuses Britain and others of perpetuating "neocolonial" attitudes toward Zimbabwe and argues land reforms are a bid to correct a colonial injustice that left most of the best agricultural land in the hands of the minority whites.
McKinnon said that despite the problems with Mugabe, the Commonwealth was thriving and he played down any talk that the body could break apart over Zimbabwe.
"The Commonwealth has survived Britain's opposition of sanctions on South Africa during the apartheid years, (it) survived when Britain was supporting French nuclear testing in the Pacific against (the will of) all other Commonwealth countries. The Commonwealth will get past this one," he said.
President George Bush is sending Walter Kansteiner, his special adviser on Africa, to the region next week. The US is persuading African leaders to back its strategy to use regional pressure to bring about the regime change. Rather than demand an immediate re-run of the March 2002 presidential election, which international observers accused Mr Mugabe of rigging, the US is pushing a so-called "Palestinian strategy". This refers to the sidelining of Yasser Arafat in favour of the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas. America, Britain and South Africa have indicated that the country's former finance minister Simba Makoni is a suitable interim figure to take over from Mr Mugabe. Mr Makoni is untainted by the worst excesses of the Mugabe regime and has publicly denounced the chaotic land seizures that have driven the country to the edge of disaster.
Tony Blair and Mr Bush have not discussed the Zimbabwe situation in their many conversations over the recent months. But Mr Blair wants the issue raised at next month's G8 summit in Evian, France. "I would like to see a bigger focus by the international community on Zimbabwe," he told the Financial Times this week. "Now there's a limit to what you can do but I have never had a difficulty with the concept of intervention. It doesn't necessarily mean ... armed intervention, it can be diplomatic." British ministers denied that the US plan was a payback for Mr Blair's support over Iraq. One Government source said: "If there was a quid pro quo, it was on the Middle East peace process and the publication of the road-map."
African leaders, including South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, have openly supported Mr Mugabe despite widespread international condemnation. They have also succeeded in undermining British attempts to isolate his regime internationally, most recently insisting that he be invited to the Franco-Africa summit organised by President Jacques Chirac. Over the past three months Mr Mbeki's views on regime change have changed, according to Mr Kansteiner. South Africa now accepts Mr Mugabe should be edged aside, he said.
Other influential African countries including Botswana, Mozambique, Senegal, Ghana agree that Mr Mugabe's removal from power is the only realistic step towards resolving the deepening crisis in Zimbabwe, which threatens to plunge the region into humanitarian and economic chaos. Mr Mbeki believes it would be easier to lobby international support for Zimbabwe with a new leader. Mr Mbeki, Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Malawi's President, Bakili Muluzi, arrive in Zimbabwe on Monday for talks with Mr Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. [End]
That is true so far as it goes, but it does not go far enough.
Tyrants do not change their behaviour unless pressured to do so. Pressure from the EU and the US is not enough if Africa is prepared to look the other way, resist effective sanctions, excuse his behaviour, pretend that he has reformed and campaign for the removal of US and EU sanctions.
Zim should not just have been suspended. It should have been expelled. That he was not expelled is the Commonwealth's most grievous failure and that can be attributed largely to the African members voting as a bloc.
As to McKinnon:
While I welcome anyone attempting to exert influence to deal with Mugabe, I must, regretfully, say that it is not McKinnon's place to be either issuing orders to the Commonwealth or to be pressuring its members, no matter how laudable the objective.
It is not the place of a secretariate to exert command and control over the organization. It is the place of the secretariate to implement the wishes of the membership.
It is a staff function, not a line function.
We let Annan get away with it and now he thinks that he is the boss of the United Nations instead of its servant, an ideation that seems to have infected much of the African and Asian membership and one that was insufficiently opposed by states that ought to know better.
We don't need the same thing in the Commonwealth.
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