Harare, Nov 29: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who has not been invited to a key Commonwealth summit next week, said his country was ready to "say goodbye" to the grouping if it refuses to treat the Southern African country as an equal partner. "If our sovereignty is what we have to lose to be readmitted into the commonwealth, well, we will say goodbye to the Commonwealth, and perhaps time has now come to say so," Mugabe said in a eulogy at a funeral of a former nationalist.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the 54-member grouping of former British colonies in march last year following a presidential election that some international observer groups said was marred by violence, intimidation and major electoral flaws.
This week Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is due to host the December 05-09 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHoGM) in the capital Abuja, said Mugabe had not been invited.
However, this has not been acknowledged by Harare. This week state media said Obasanjo was yet to invite Mugabe.
And on Friday, Mugabe suggested he would be attending the summit and would be keen to see if the group lived up to its claims of giving all members equal partnership.
Bureau Report