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Six-nation group set up to re-examine Zimbabwe issue
Abuja, Dec 05: A six-nation group including India, has been set up to look afresh at Zimbabwe`s re-entry into the Commonwealth and will report by tomorrow so the matter can be taken up during the retreat of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet.
Jamaica, South Africa, Mozambique, Canada, and Australia, apart
from India, are members of this group which was set up today by
Chogm chairman and Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo. The group
will report to the plenary session tomorrow.
Immediately after the inauguration of Chogm 2003 by Queen
Elizabeth II this morning, Obasanjo convened a meeting of heads
of states, governments and delegations to discuss the issues of
Zimbabwe and the new secretary general of the body, a matter put off
to later this afternoon.
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told a press meet at the
Indian media centre here that it was felt that the Zimbabwe issue
should not become an African versus Anglo-Saxon issue and therefore
India had a major role to play in this regard. He said Zimbabwe must
make changes in its land reforms policy before it could be taken
back into the Commonwealth.
He said the issue had earlier been discussed by a troika
comprising Australia, South Africa and Nigeria set up at the Coolum
Chogm meet in 2002 which had decided that Zimbabwe should be
suspended for a year.
Though the issue was also listed in the agenda of the
Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, it had not been taken up in
view of the troika's findings and the new group set up today.
Bureau Report