LONDON - Thirty years after the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Lusaka that paved the way for the Lancaster House Conference, the end of the Rhodesian War and the birth of Zimbabwe in April 1980, Dr Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia has called on the leaders of the Clubs 53 sovereign states to engage proactively with the Government of National Unity The great achievement of the Lusaka CHOGM was persuading Margaret Thatcher to call the Lancaster House conference on Zimbabwe, he said in an interview conducted by the Royal Commonwealth Society. Of all the Commonwealth has done, this alone was a very important achievement and it was the most important result of this wonderful conference. Now the Commonwealth should be trying to engage more proactively with the GNU. Quite a number of leaders have been involved in Zimbabwe already, and it has had some good results.
Kaunda was President of Zambia from 1964 until 1991. In 1979, he and Tanzanias Dr Julius Nyerere were considered two of the Commonwealths elder statesmen.
He recalled that after that CHOGM he had spoken to Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. They did not think Margaret Thatcher was serious about the CHOGMs decision to call a summit on Zimbabwe in London. I knew she was serious and called my colleagues Julius Nyerere and the President of Mozambique (Samora Machel). I told them what Mugabe and Nkomo had told me and together we persuaded them to change their minds and go to London.
The RCS also spoke to another key figure at the 1979 conference in Lusaka, the former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser who agreed it was time for the Commonwealth to engage proactively with the new dispensation in Harare.
Pullout quote: Zimbabwe is not only one of the greatest successes of the Commonwealth but also one of its greatest failures
Zimbabwe is not only one of the greatest successes of the Commonwealth in terms of what happened in 1979 but also one of its greatest failures, he said.
Its a great tragedy that the Commonwealth did not marshal its resources early enough or adequately enough on Zimbabwe. I still believe that it could have been extraordinarily influential but it wasnt going to happen without an activist Secretary-General. The Commonwealth should have made it extremely difficult for President Thabo Mbeki to stand up and support Mugabe. The Commonwealth should have found a way around this.
Zimbabwes membership of the Commonwealth was suspended after the 2002 election which Mugabe rigged. The following year, Mugabe announced that he was pulling out of the Club because he refused to accept the decision made at the Abuja Summit to maintain Zimbabwes suspension indefinitely.
After the Commonwealth decision, Mugabe received explanatory phone calls from the Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the South African President Thabo Mbeki and the Jamaican Prime Minister, PJ Patterson. Mugabe told them This is it. Zimbabwe quits and quits it will be.
But the situation has now changed and contacts between civic groups within the Commonwealth and the GNU in Harare have been made, though little publicized.
Without mentioning by name the Commonwealth Secretary-General at the time of Zimbabwes departure from the Club (Sir Charles Don McKinnon) Malcolm Fraser told the RCS: I believe that if Sonny Ramphal had been Secretary-General in more recent times, the Commonwealth would have been far, far more active in trying to keep Robert Mugabe on the straight and narrow. There was a role there that the Commonwealth did not fill.
He added: I really do believe that the Commonwealth should not be a shy and retiring organization. The Secretary-General should be an activist and I wish that heads of government would be prepared to pick somebody who would follow Sonny Ramphals example. Part of it is a question of leadership and advocacy of the Secretary-General but its also a question of the quality and character of the Heads of Government of the day. The fact that the Commonwealth has not played a more high profile role reflects the view of some governments.
On the future of the Commonwealth which recently made an attempt to engage with a new generation, he declared: Youve got to ask yourself perhaps the most important question. If the Commonwealth is to survive as an effective organization, what do you want it to do? Do you want it to just there to do routine, humdrum things and never annoy anyone, never resolve disputes? Or do you want it to be an active player?
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