Mugabe Threatens to Quit Commonwealth
By ANGUS SHAW
.c The Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - President Robert Mugabe on Friday threatened to pull Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth after the 54-nation grouping of Britain and its former territories barred him from an upcoming summit in Nigeria.
Speaking at the funeral of a ruling party activist, Mugabe blamed his exclusion on states opposed to his government's seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks. The often-violent seizures have crippled the country's agriculture-based economy.
The government has also been cracking down on political dissent, arresting opposition leaders and shutting down the country's only independent daily newspaper.
``If our sovereignty is to be real, then we will say goodbye'' to the Commonwealth, Mugabe said in remarks broadcast on state television. ``Perhaps the time has come to say so.''
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth's decision-making councils following allegations of intimidation and vote-rigging in Mugabe's disputed 2002 re-election.
Mugabe's insistence last week that he expected to attend the Dec. 5-8 meeting of heads of state in Abuja heightened the threat of a boycott by Queen Elizabeth II and the prime ministers of Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Pacific nations.
On Tuesday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said Mugabe was welcome to visit his country, but not to attend the summit.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon and Australian Prime Minister John Howard have repeatedly criticized Mugabe for human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe lashed out at Howard on Friday, calling him ``genetically modified because of the criminal ancestry he derives from'' - a reference to Australia's history as a penal colony.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth councils would be dicussed at the summit in Nigeria.
Zimbabwe faces its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, with inflation running at 526 percent and acute shortages of good, gasoline, medicines and other essential goods.
11/28/03 20:47 EST
