Zimbabwe plans to quit Commonwealth
Zimbabwe says it will quit the Commonwealth after a ban was extended on suspending the southern African country.
President Robert Mugabe informed the leaders of Jamaica, Nigeria and South Africa that Harare refused to accept the Commonwealth’s suspension and had withdrawn its membership “with immediate effect,” a statement read.
Didymus Mutasa, external affairs secretary of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party said a decision had already been taken to leave the Commonwealth: “We have already made a decision that we were leaving the Commonwealth,” ZANU-PF external affairs secretary Didymus Mutasa told Reuters shortly before the decision was announced.”
The four-day Commonwealth summit in Nigeria has been dominated with crisis in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe was suspended early last year after 79-year-old Mr Mugabe allegedly fixed the result of his re-election and had committed human rights abuses.
But several African Commonwealth members lobbied for its readmission to the group of former British colonies.
Commonwealth countries were far from unanimous in extending Zimbabwe’s suspension, and left open a possible return for Zimbabwe if the country reconciled its differences with opponents.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said of the suspension: “It is a situation where you cannot say whether it will take one year or six months. We will be watching the situation closely in Zimbabwe. If things I’ve heard are happening inside Zimbabwe is anything to go by, we will be talking in terms of months rather than years.”
