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From The Observer (UK), 7 December

Mugabe: I'll quit Commonwealth

Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent

The Commonwealth was plunged into disarray last night after President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe threatened to withdraw his country from the organisation. This dramatic escalation of the dispute over Zimbabwe's suspension from membership was timed for maximum embarrassment, with member nations gathered for a summit in Nigeria and talks over the issue still deadlocked after two days. Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party voted yesterday for a motion to withdraw unless the talks, which are expected to conclude tomorrow, go his way. 'If we say we are doing this, we will do. We never retreat,' Mugabe said. His Foreign Minister, Stan Mudenge, said the Cabinet would meet soon to discuss withdrawal and he saw 'no difficulty' in securing its agreement. The intervention, which successfully hijacked the biannual meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government, was being seen last night as a last-ditch attempt to blackmail other nations into agreeing that Zimbabwe could be readmitted.

Tony Blair's attempts to prevent the issue overshadowing the summit collapsed yesterday as the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon admitted it would take 'significant verbal gymnastics' to agree a deal over Zimbabwe - suspended last March over its appalling human rights record. Officials said it was unlikely that the group of six leaders charged with producing a blueprint for re-engagement with Zimbabwe would produce their conclusions until tonight. Officials made clear that Blair, due to leave tomorrow afternoon, could stay on if events reached crisis point. Paul Themba Nyathi, spokesman for the Zimbabwean opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, pleaded last night for the six not to submit to pressure. 'If [Mugabe] withdraws from the Commonwealth his status as a dictator will be confirmed,' he said. The MDC wanted Zimbabwe's suspension maintained, he said arguing that although little appeared to have improved during the 18 months of his suspension, Mugabe was affected by it.

The group of six - leaders of Australia, Canada, Mozambique, South Africa, Jamaica and India - spent yesterday attempting to agree new tests for progress before Zimbabwe could be readmitted and new ways of monitoring events. Civil society groups meeting formally under the Commonwealth umbrella in Nigeria yesterday accused it of 'double standards' over human rights and turning a blind eye to abuses in favoured countries. Britain and Australia were heavily criticised for invading Iraq while criticising other countries' abuses. In a statement issued yesterday, the Civil Societies Meeting warned that the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States had been used as an excuse by some governments to clamp down on legitimate, peaceful opposition. Ced Simpson, spokesman for the group, said there was concern about clampdowns in Malaysia and Singapore but that the UK and Australia had also been criticised for military intervention in Iraq.

Last night as the retreat at the Nigerian presidential villa in Abuja broke up, delegates said the group of six had produced a draft statement on Zimbabwe but had failed to secure agreement on it. Helen Clark, the New Zealand Prime Minister, said the majority of the group favoured Zimbabwe's continued suspension and setting benchmarks which it would have to meet before being allowed back in. Asked how seriously she viewed Mugabe's threat to leave, Clark said: 'If the decision is for continued suspension he has put himself in a position where he is saying he will go if that happens, so he will look a little silly if he doesn't carry through the threat.'

From News24 (SA), 6 December

Mugabe urged to stay put

Abuja - Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon urged Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe not to compound his country's isolation by withdrawing from the world body in protest at his suspension. Commonwealth leaders meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja are arguing over the terms for Zimbabwe's eventual readmission to the world body, but Mugabe has threatened to cut the dispute short by dropping out completely. "I would hope that Mugabe would take a breath on this one and realise that the Commonwealth meeting here really does want to move on on Zimbabwe," he said, insisting that leaders wanted to re-engage with Harare. "There's a lot more to gain from being inside the Commonwealth than outside it," the former New Zealand foreign minister said. He dismissed allegations that Commonwealth membership was irrelevant to Zimbabwe, recalling that last month Mugabe had expressed hopes that he would be invited to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). "It seemed to be an extremely relevant institution when President Mugabe was saying he wanted to come to CHOGM," he said. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth's ruling councils in March last year after an election which Commonwealth observers said was conducted in a "climate of fear". Now, the body's leaders are divided over whether to readmit it or to insist first on higher standards of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. A six-nation panel comprising the leaders of Australia, Canada, India, Jamaica, Mozambique and South Africa has been set up to work alongside the summit and report back to the 52 national delegations with recommendations. McKinnon said he expected the panel to report before the end of Sunday, the second day of the Commonwealth "retreat" - an informal closed door session designed to encourage plain talking between the leaders at the summit.

From The Independent (UK), 7 December

Mugabe: Commonwealth is 'Animal Farm'

By Chris Chinaka and Ed Johnson in Abuja, Nigeria

Commonwealth leaders last night agreed Zimbabwe would remain suspended from the 54-nation group and appointed the Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, and the Commonwealth secretary general, Don McKinnon, to monitor Zimbabwe's progress over the next two years, diplomatic sources said. The decision, to monitor Zimbabwe until the next Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting, represents a victory for Britain and the anti-Mugabe camp. But, according to the sources, Thabo Mbeki, the South African President who has fought hard to get Zimbabwe readmitted, said this did not mean President Robert Mugabe's regime would be off the agenda for the rest of this meeting. This ensures Zimbabwe will continue to dominate proceedings today. Last night, the only official word on the decision of a six-member committee appointed by CHOGM to discuss Zimbabwe came from the New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who said: "They have a form of words which they are still negotiating and they will continue to negotiate over this evening. "I understand that a clear view of a majority of the group is that the suspension should continue and it should be made clear what benchmarks Mr Mugabe should have to make to be let back in." Earlier in the day, Zimbabwe's President Mugabe said his government would pull out of the Commonwealth after his ruling Zanu PF party passed a resolution calling for Zimbabwe's withdrawal.

The suggestion that the Nigerian President should, as host of this conference and chairman for the next two years, monitor Zimbabwe had been turned down at a meeting of African and Caribbean leaders. President Obasanjo had hoped to get the issue agreed early on in the three-day conference. Yesterday's full meeting, including 40 heads of state, turned the Zimbabwe issue over to the committee of six, consisting of two countries in favour of readmitting Zimbabwe South Africa and Mozambique two against Australia and Canada and two others, Jamaica and India. That committee recommended Mr Obasanjo's original proposal be accepted and Mr Mbeki backed down, sources said. The decision comes as a great relief to the British, who regard the Nigerian leader as a safe pair of hands. Although in favour of readmitting Zimbabwe earlier in the year, Mr Obasanjo changed his mind two weeks ago when he went to Harare to assess things for himself. He found Mr Mugabe as unaccommodating as ever. Earlier, a South African- sponsored challenge to the exclusion of Zimbabwe was defeated when the heads of government voted 40 to 11 in favour of Mr McKinnon continuing as secretary general. The election was seen as a protest against the policy on Zimbabwe. It also destroyed the myth of African solidarity over Zimbabwe. Eleven votes for the rival candidate, a former Sri Lankan foreign minister, showed that only a handful of African countries support South Africa's stand to have Zimbabwe returned.

Mr Mugabe's threat to withdraw was made at a two-day meeting in Zimbabwe where, before 3,000 cheering delegates, he said the Commonwealth had been hijacked by racists who were interfering in Zimbabwe's internal affairs. He said there was no backing down from the resolution, because his government had been treated unfairly. "The Commonwealth is a mere club, but it has become like Animal Farm, where some members are more equal than others. How can Blair claim to regulate and direct events and still say all of us are equals?" he said. Commonwealth leaders suspended Zimbabwe last year, saying Mr Mugabe had rigged his re-election in 2002 and harassed opponents.

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9 December 2003
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In this issue :
Withdrawal leaves disunity - Times
SA's standing undermined - Mmegi
Adios Zimbabwe - Star
Mirror, mirror - Jamaica Observer
What's the Commonwealth for? - Economist
Into darkness - Daily Telegraph
From The Times (UK), 9 December

Commonwealth struggles to show united front as summit ends

From Michael Dynes in Abuja

The Commonwealth struggled yesterday to maintain its unity in the face of the whirlwind unleashed by Zimbabwe’s unilateral withdrawal from the 54-member body of former British colonies. As the heads of government summit in Nigeria ended, southern African leaders said that the decision to extend Zimbabwe’s suspension indefinitely had been demanded by Western members who had little understanding of Africa. "We are unhappy because we cannot accept these undemocratic procedures," President Chissano of Mozambique, who is head of the African Union, said. "We are going to express this as a group." He rebuked Britain, Australia and New Zealand for adopting "pressure and punishment" tactics against President Mugabe, while southern African countries had been striving to coax Zimbabwe back into the democratic fold. President Mwanawasa of Zambia said: "The Western countries bulldozed the suspension of Zimbabwe partly because of their economic muscle. I am very disappointed. We leave Abuja more divided than when we arrived." Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said that Mr Mugabe would regret his decision to leave the Commonwealth, but added: "President Mugabe will not be there for ever and other countries have been out of the Commonwealth - including Nigeria for a period - and come back. I look forward to the time when Zimbabwe has a democratic government and is back in the Commonwealth."

Mr Mugabe declared his intention to withdraw after being formally told by President Obasanjo of Nigeria that Zimbabwe’s 20-month suspension had been extended without limit because of its persistent record of human rights abuses. The announcement came as little surprise to the summit. Mr Obasanjo had been in constant touch with Mr Mugabe throughout the four-day gathering and had told him in advance that an extension of the suspension was the most likely outcome. Mr Mugabe had told Mr Obasanjo that if that was the case, he would have no choice but to withdraw. Mr Chissano said that Britain, Australia and Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, had shown little understanding of the struggle by African countries to build democracy after having emerged only recently from the rule of "abject racialist states".

But Mr Chissano was himself the target of a veiled reprimand from Mr Obasanjo, who rejected the criticism that the Commonwealth’s decision had been "undemocratic". The six-member committee set up to deal with Zimbabwe had arrived at its decision by consensus. "In a situation like this, consensus means you may not always get your own way," Mr Obasanjo said. He said that he had pleaded with Mr Mugabe to stay in the Commonwealth. "But Mr Mugabe, rightly or wrongly, felt that there were no grounds for extending its suspension," Mr Obasanjo said. "That’s how he felt. I tried to let him know that whatever he feels, which I understand, he should try to let the Commonwealth assist him." The Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change said that Mr Mugabe’s response was to be expected. "We all knew that he would react in a kneejerk manner," Paul Themba Nyathi, its spokesman, said. "After all, this is a man who specialises in the destruction of his own country."

From Mmegi (Botswana), 9 December

Zim C’wealth exit hurts SA diplomacy

Johannesburg - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s decision to quit the Commonwealth has dented South Africa’s policy of "quiet diplomacy" and undermined its standing among its African peers, analysts said yesterday. South African President Thabo Mbeki has pursued a non-confrontational approach to Zimbabwe and tried to have its suspension lifted at the Commonwealth summit in Abuja, but the suspension held and Mugabe swiftly quit the 54-nation club. "Mbeki never likes to admit that he’s wrong, but the softly approach hasn’t worked. I think that the government’s policy is so vague, so subtle, so nuanced, that it scarcely amounts to being a policy," said Tom Lodge, political science professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. "I think that within Africa Mbeki looks weak and within the Commonwealth he will be taken less seriously in the future."

There is little personal warmth between the two former freedom fighters, but Mbeki has stood by Mugabe, shielding him to some extent from the effects of Western sanctions. Some analysts said Mbeki’s commitment to land reform in his own country made him less inclined to denounce abuses committed under Zimbabwe’s much-criticised land redistribution programme. Landlocked Zimbabwe is economically dependent on its rich neighbour, from where it gets much of its power and fuel. Analysts say South Africa’s policy has become increasingly hard to justify as Zimbabwe’s shrinking economy sinks ever deeper into crisis with record inflation and mass unemployment, and Mugabe’s security forces stifle political dissent. "Mugabe has not been helpful to South Africa and Nigeria. He is also isolating himself from the leaders on the continent," said Sehlare Makgetlaneng, head of research for southern Africa at the Africa Institute in Pretoria.

In Abuja, Mbeki’s spokesman Bheki Khumalo declined to comment on Zimbabwe’s withdrawal, but Zimbabwe’s shadow foreign minister told Reuters the summit had tarnished Mbeki’s image. "It was most humiliating for him and for his country to attempt to prevent the decision the Commonwealth took in the first place, to be seen to be defending a dictator who has brought ruin to his country," said Moses Mzila, of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "It was diplomatic bungling at such a high level that Mbeki will feel hurt for some time to come that his stand was tossed out the window," Mzila added. Mbeki has repeatedly tried to mollify critics of his policy, saying Mugabe’s Zanu PF party was in high-level talks with the MDC, despite denials by the opposition party itself. South African opposition parties rounded on Mbeki yesterday, deriding his policy as a failure. "The argument by some African states that the readmission of Zimbabwe into the Commonwealth would encourage reform is a joke," said the minor African Christian Democratic Party.

Comment from The Star (SA), 9 December

Adios Zimbabwe

By the Editor

The Commonwealth summit in Abuja was right to keep Zimbabwe suspended from the body until President Robert Mugabe starts to govern properly and stops persecuting his political opponents. His decision to pull Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth in response may well make it harder to persuade him to do the right thing. But he was showing no signs of being persuaded anyway, and so invited tougher remedies. We had previously expressed the hope that the South African government would not champion Mugabe's cause at the summit. But that is what it did. President Mbeki battled to get Zimbabwe readmitted immediately. And SA apparently lobbied leaders to oust Secretary-General Don McKinnon who had persistently opposed Zimbabwe's readmission. Other Southern African Development Community countries seem to share Mbeki's displeasure at the decision to keep Mugabe out. That is unfortunate, but SADC leaders should acknowledge that as the frontline states, as it were, against Mugabe's misbehaviour, they have failed dismally to influence him.

They made it difficult for the Commonwealth to avoid taking a harder line. And they cannot convincingly argue, as Mugabe has, that the decision was racist. McKinnon was re-elected by 40 votes to 11. And probably the same majority of leaders opposed Zimbabwe's readmission. Most of those were not white - and many were African. Mugabe's defiant action recalls SA Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's withdrawal of SA from the Commonwealth in 1961 just before we were kicked out. It took SA 33 years - and much trauma - to get back in. But who would argue now that the Commonwealth was wrong to keep us out? This newspaper hopes that it does not take 33 years for Zimbabwe to meet the conditions for a return to the Commonwealth. Its collapsing economy suggests that change will come much sooner than that. But however long it takes, South Africa, of all countries, should acknowledge that democracy and freedom do not come unless there is some sharp prodding.

Comment from The Jamaica Observer, 9 December

Mirror, mirror...Mr Mugabe or Mr Smith

Mr Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, used to be a hero to many of us in countries like Jamaica. These days, though, Mr Mugabe is more than a bit of an embarrassment. Mr Mugabe's latest antics were played out at the weekend at a conference of his Zanu PF at which he engineered a resolution demanding that Zimbabwe leave the Commonwealth if the group approved the continued suspension of the southern African country from its councils. With stunning banality, Mr Mugabe dismissed the Commonwealth, this group of more than 50 nations, as just another club. There are other clubs which Zimbabwe could join, he told his supporters. Significantly, Jamaica's prime minister, Mr P J Patterson, was among a six-member committee, that included the leaders of Australia, Canada, India, Mozambique and South Africa, that recommended an extension of Zimbabwe's one-year suspension from the Commonwealth. The group felt that in the year since its suspension Mr Mugabe and his Government had done little, or nothing, to address the problem that caused its suspension in the first place - a flawed general election, which international observers held not to have been free or fair. If anything, the situation in Zimbabwe for democracy has grown worse, with the introduction of anti-press laws and the harassment of opposition politicians.

The country's deteriorating political situation has been compounded by a political and social crisis, to which Mr Mugabe's only response seems to be to hark back to the issue of race and to attempt to split the Commonwealth along a black/white divide. The unfortunate fact is that Mr Mugabe's posturing is a cynical and cynically shameless attempt to confuse and manipulate an issue for which he suspects there may be latent sympathy among the majority, and mostly black, countries of the Commonwealth. Most Jamaicans, like black people around the world, would have held Mr Mugabe in high esteem when he led the bush war in what was then Rhodesia, against Ian Smith's white minority government that practiced its own brand of political and social apartheid. Indeed, the late Michael Manley played a crucial role at the 1979 Commonwealth summit in bringing home to Margaret Thatcher that she and Britain were losing the moral right to talk in support of democracy while broadly accommodating Mr Smith and other kith and kin in Rhodesia.

There is little doubt that Mr Mugabe and the independence leaders inherited a country with a highly skewed allocation of resources on the basis of race, not least of the problem being the distribution of land. The majority of the good, agricultural land was held by majority whites. Over two decades, Mr Mugabe has done little to redress this imbalance in a structured and organised fashion and neither has he been able to build a national consensus around the future of Zimbabwe. He was clearly no Nelson Mandela. In the face of growing internal opposition to his policies and economic stagnation, Mr Mugabe drew the card that was likely to stir support -- the emotive land issue. He has attempted to muddy the waters by making the erosion of democratic rule and the diminution of freedoms one and the same thing as the debate over the land reform. Confiscating white-owned lands without compensation was, for Mr Mugabe, redressing old inequities, no matter the breach of the law. And to Mr Mugabe the stealing of an election was validated by an attempt to rebalance the past, with all opponents and critics being deemed as anti-black and racist. Mr Mugabe's Zimbabwe has been turned on its head. For, looking hard at Mr Mugabe, you may just see Ian Smith. Each looking at himself.

From The Economist (UK), 8 December

What’s the Commonwealth for?

Robert Mugabe has angrily withdrawn Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. If the club of mostly former British colonies cannot encourage or enforce democracy in its own members, then what is it for?

In a new twist on Groucho Marx’s adage - that he would not like to be a member of a club that would have him as a member - Robert Mugabe has angrily withdrawn Zimbabwe’s membership of the Commonwealth. The move came in response to developments at the weekend, when the club of mainly former British colonies decided at its summit in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to continue the southern African country’s suspension indefinitely. Zimbabwe had been suspended last year following a presidential election marred by violence and vote-rigging. Despite all the evidence that things have got worse, not better, Zimbabwe’s Commonwealth neighbours in southern Africa had lobbied for its reinstatement at the summit. But they failed in this, and in a linked attempt to unseat Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth’s secretary-general and a New Zealander, whom they see as a representative of what they call the "white" Commonwealth. But if the Commonwealth cannot even agree on the suspension of a country that has so egregiously departed from the club’s avowed aims of democracy and human rights, then what purpose does it serve?

The Commonwealth is indeed an odd creature. It is largely, though not purely, the remnants of Britain’s empire, which once covered a quarter of the world’s land surface. Zimbabwe’s withdrawal leaves the club with 53 members - including Australia, Canada, India, Nigeria and South Africa as well as Britain - bound together in a voluntary association. When the term "commonwealth" was first used, in the 1920s, it was a means of preserving ties without the unpleasant colonial overtones that the word "empire" contained. The second world war, and in particular the fall of Singapore in 1942, made it clear that Britain could no longer defend the empire, and removed much of the mystique of Britain’s power. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Commonwealth was one of the vehicles through which Britain could manage the decolonisation of countries it could no longer afford to govern or defend (most of which also happened to be hungering after independence). For the former colonies, there were tangible benefits. Britain had special trade arrangements that favoured, for example, the bananas from its former Caribbean dominions over those from Central America. Commonwealth nationals had the right to migrate to Britain - and many did. Commonwealth citizens who come to live in Britain still enjoy certain voting privileges over other foreigners, even over citizens of other European Union (EU) countries.

However, many of these benefits have diminished in the 30 years since Britain joined the predecessor to the EU. One of the EU’s main purposes is to be a regional free-trade zone, and Britain is now prohibited from granting its former colonies special privileges. Britain’s immigration rules have tightened up too, and most Commonwealth citizens now have special rights only if they already have relatives in Britain. The Commonwealth Business Council, a body funded by the club, insists that there are still significant trade and investment benefits. A spokesman asserts that a shared language (English is the first or second language throughout the Commonwealth), common-law tradition and accounting conventions deliver a "10-15% increase in efficiency in dealing with [other] Commonwealth [members]". This effect might not be as nebulous as it sounds. Some economists point to a difference between common-law and civil-law economies. Above all, the Commonwealth defines its purpose largely in civil-society terms: the promotion of democracy, human rights and sustainable economic and social development. In Britain, it seems to have a different significance for different people. Traditionalists like the link with the lost empire. Others think that the Commonwealth is a modern interpretation of Rudyard Kipling’s view that the colonies were the "white man’s burden" - that the West, in short, has a responsibility to civilise the developing world. Some on the left see the club as an unwanted relic, while others argue that it is a way for Britain to atone for its colonial sins and to offer practical help in the fraught process of democratisation.

Supporters of the Commonwealth also point out that there are some beneficial cultural links for the former colonies. Britain’s universities retain strong links with Commonwealth countries, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Britain’s foreign ministry, runs internship programmes, such as the Chevening Scholarship for Indian journalists, that are biased towards Commonwealth nationals. Moreover, though some criticise the Commonwealth for being little more than a talking shop, it is a talking shop that poor countries (Zimbabwe apart) seem to like. For former colonies, it is the most important global organisation that the United States does not dominate. And though Britain’s Queen Elizabeth is the head of the Commonwealth, Britain has no special status. Indeed, Tony Blair, Britain’s prime minister, who had been disgusted at the idea that Zimbabwe’s suspension might be lifted, expressed his frustration that all votes at the Commonwealth have to be unanimous - Britain and its anti-Mugabe allies could not pull rank. It is one of the few international bodies in which a tiny country like St Lucia has the same standing as G7 members like Britain and Canada. Individuals join clubs because of the people they will rub shoulders with. Why should heads of government, and the countries they represent, be any different?

Comment from The Daily Telegraph (UK), 9 December

Mugabe heads towards the heart of darkness

By David Blair

He will never admit it but, by deciding to eject his country from the Commonwealth, President Robert Mugabe has cast Zimbabwe into the darkness. He follows in the unhappy footsteps of apartheid-era South Africa, which provides the only precedent for unilateral withdrawal in the Commonwealth's 59-year history. Apart from the United Nations, Zimbabwe is no longer part of any international organisation that brings links with the Western world. Mr Mugabe has even contrived to have the International Monetary Fund institute measures to expel his country. Most African leaders would be petrified about the loss of aid and investment caused by this isolation. Mr Mugabe will be oblivious to such concern. He has already turned Zimbabwe into one of the world's fastest-shrinking economies where inflation exceeds 500 per cent.

Mr Mugabe believes this is all down to a racist plot against his country. In any event, he tells Zimbabweans, hardship is the price they must pay for regaining their land from white farmers. Yet he knows that his diplomatic options are collapsing. Doubtless he will ensure that Africa's regional organisations issue strong statements of support and condemnations of the Commonwealth. The Southern African Development Community, with 14 member states, and the African Union, a grouping of all the countries on the continent, can be relied on to support Zimbabwe. But Mr Mugabe is acutely aware that African solidarity is an unreliable commodity. The continent's Commonwealth members have been split down the middle over Zimbabwe's membership, with heavyweights such as Kenya and Ghana backing the British line.

Last week, Mr Mugabe vented his fury on leaders who "fear to be Africans" and "hesitate to express solidarity with us". But he still has the support of his principal "African brother", President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. As long as the continent's foremost power remains on side, Mr Mugabe will be protected from the diplomatic heat. Instead, he will feel free to increase pressure on opponents within Zimbabwe. His response to isolation abroad might be to escalate repression at home. That appeared to be the message he delivered at the ruling Zanu PF party's annual congress last week. "Anyone wishing to destabilise Zimbabwe, take care," he said. "We can unleash these forces on him. We can unleash legal force and violence, which we are permitted to do." The opposition Movement for Democratic Change and the surviving handful of white farmers could be on the receiving end of more "force and violence" now Mr Mugabe has become the sole occupant of Africa's isolation ward.

David Blair was Zimbabwe correspondent of The Daily Telegraph until he was forced to leave the country in 2001

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African News Headlines at a glance daily