No pity for Mugabe

It was one thing for black Africa to urge - and to welcome - the world turning its back on the pariah apartheid state of South Africa where the minority ruled by violence, suppression and exclusion. Apart from geography, the common denominator of pan- African nationalism was an aversion to white colonialism. The problem since has been that the brutality and exploitation by white masters have been replaced too often by black regimes of at least equal malevolence. From the perspective of black rulers, it therefore becomes an entirely different matter when blacks are oppressed by blacks.

That was evident at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, albeit with notable exceptions. Dominated by Zimbabwe's continued suspension from the Commonwealth, CHOGM missed important opportunities to discuss economic restructuring and the AIDS tragedy. But it was not altogether Africa versus the rest: Ghana and Kenya voted against Zimbabwe; the CHOGM host, Nigeria's President, Olusegun Obasanjo, changed his mind after visiting Harare and finding the Zimbabwe dictator, Robert Mugabe, as unaccommodating as ever.

For all the brouhaha about Britain and "its sidekick" Australia bullying the assembly into voting against Zimbabwe, the simple truth is that Mr Mugabe invited his isolation by stealing last year's presidential election, rigging the 2000 elections, dispossessing white farmers (thereby exacerbating a food crisis for all Zimbabweans) and imposing a reign of terror. He has no one to blame but himself, and all his stereotypical invoking of others' past injustices does nothing to erase or mitigate his own.

But he will take comfort from the stresses exposed within the Commonwealth over his treatment. Mr Obasanjo, for instance, accused the Prime Minister, John Howard, of being too hardline and inflexible, while the Zimbabwean ambassador to Australia, Florence Chitauro, was appropriately chastised here for her criticisms that Mr Howard had acted dictatorially by imposing his will on the Commonwealth troika charged with reviewing the suspension.

Diplomacy works when both sides are willing to give a little. No such concessions have been forthcoming from Mr Mugabe. Black Africa cannot have it both ways. Mr Mugabe has spurned the hand that might have helped feed his people, and international isolation has failed to diminish his totalitarianism. That is a dilemma for those seeking to alleviate Zimbabwe's suffering but, as with South Africa, turning a blind eye to Mugabe injustice is more likely to entrench it than to weaken his grip.

-- The Sydney Morning Herald