UK Gives Prospects Of Zimbabwe Rejoining
Commonwealth
British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that Zimbabwe could be
re-admitted to the Commonwealth in 2011 if it pushes ahead with
reforms.
Zimbabwe withdrew from the Commonwealth in 2003 after a
suspension imposed a year earlier was renewed, when President
Robert Mugabe won re-election in a poll that was alleged rigged.
Mr. Brown said in an article, that Zimbabwe's power-sharing
government had chalked up achievements, including raising living
standards and taming hyper-inflation.
He however said opponents of reform, both inside and outside
Zimbabwe, would do everything possible to obstruct change.
The article was released in Trinidad and Tobago, at a summit of
the Commonwealth, which groups 53 countries, mostly former
British colonies.
“I sincerely hope that by the time of our next meeting in 2011,
Zimbabwe will have made enough progress for us to welcome them
back into the Commonwealth,’’ Brown said.
Mr. Brown also said that Britain would channel 60 million pounds
in aid to Zimbabwe this year and was ready to do more once the
Zimbabwean government showed it was ready to implement a
power-sharing agreement.
Brown said “Such actions will drive the decision about whether
to lift the European Union asset freeze and travel ban against
the 203 Zimbabweans involved in the violence and human rights
abuses, and on 40 companies associated with them."
Brown had suggested this week that the Commonwealth should make
a conditional offer to Zimbabwe by holding out the possibility
it could rejoin the group if it delivered on reforms.
Commonwealth meeting
Among the main issues on the agenda of the biennial
Commonwealth summit, which opened in Port of Spain, Trinidad and
Tobago on Friday, is climate change and next month’s Copenhagen
summit aimed at securing a global agreement on curbing carbon
emissions.
Mr. Brown has invited Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen
and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to address Commonwealth
leaders, in the hope they will back serious carbon cuts.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) marks the
organization’s 60th anniversary and comes just 10 days before
the United Nations-sponsored Copenhagen conference to thrash out
plans to halt global warming.
US President Barack Obama gave Copenhagen a boost this week by
announcing he will attend and promising cuts in America's CO2
emissions.
BBC/AP/Yinka
