Zimbabwe set for Commonwealth return by 2011

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, pulled his country out of the organisation in 2003 and has been a fierce critic of Britain ever since.

However, the new political coalition in Zimbabwe has helped pave the way for a possible early return.

Leaders of Commonwealth countries, including Gordon Brown, will gather for their biennial meeting in Trinidad on Friday. Discussions will take place that are expected to set a timetable for Zimbabwe to be re-admitted at the next summit in two years time.

The re-admission will be linked to a series of reforms being implemented by Harare.

Officials are looking closely at how the coalition parties, which include Mr Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change, have gone about putting in place the reforms that include action on human rights, judicial reform and a constitutional overhaul.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, agreed to join a unity government with Mr Mugabe in January after months of political stalemate. Under the deal Mr Tsvangirai became prime minister while Mr Mugabe chaired cabinet meetings.

The South African Development Community want to see progress on new reforms by 6 December.

Britain led an attempt in 2002 to get Zimbabwe suspended from the Commonwealth after the full extent of Mr Mugabe’s brutal campaign against his political opponents became clear – more than 100 were killed.

However, the diplomatic moves initially failed as foreign ministers from eight Commonwealth member states refused and instead chose to push for more sanctions and demands for “full and fair elections.”

When those elections were roundly agreed not to have been fair, with violence and intimidation rife, Zimbabwe was suspended, initially for one year.

But pre-empting an extension of the suspension Mr Mugabe pulled Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth in 2003.

British officials ahead of Friday’s meeting said yesterday that they thought there was some progress on reforms in Harare, but they needed to be more solid before firm commitments of a return to the Commonwealth can be countenanced.

The Queen will open Friday’s meeting in Trinidad and Zimbabwe will be discussed a day later. The timing has extra symbolism as it is 30 years since a similar meeting in Lusaka opened the way for Rhodesia to become independent. A year later Zimbabwe was born.

The two-year power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe means there should be an election by February 2011 and a new constitution. So a Commonwealth return is possible after that.

However, with the constitutional talks deadlocked there is some uncertainty about the scale of progress that might be achieved by 2011.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, will address the Commonwealth gathering, becoming the first French leader to do so. He will take part in talks with the Prime Minister and other leaders on climate change.

Source: Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6646415/Zimbabwe-set-for-Commonwealth-return-by-2011.html)