Monday, 4 March, 2002, 18:14 GMT Opposition anger at Zimbabwe deal Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change has criticised a Commonwealth decision to take no action against the country before presidential elections later this week. Tendai Biti, MDC shadow minister for foreign affairs, said the Commonwealth should have carried out its earlier threat to suspend Zimbabwe, given that state-sponsored violence against the opposition had got worse. "A free and fair election is clearly impossible at this late stage in the proceedings," he said. But a spokesman for the ruling Zanu-PF party welcomed the Commonwealth's ruling, under which a three-member committee will be set up to decide future action based on the findings of the group's election observers. BBC diplomatic correspondent Barnaby Mason says the Commonwealth decision was a painful compromise between member countries. Britain and Australia had pushed for Zimbabwe's immediate suspension, while others such as Tanzania and Namibia opposed any discussion at all. Violence Hours after the deal had been announced, police in Zimbabwe broke up a meeting in a Harare hotel between Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, and foreign diplomats. They had been in the middle of discussing food shortages in the country when officers went in and declared the gathering illegal. ZIMBABWE VOICES "I cannot wait for the elections to be over. Perhaps then I will be able to live a normal life.", Barbara, a teacher In other incidents, an MDC spokesman said three activists were being held at a ruling party base south-west of the capital. A group of militants supporting the ruling party had also attacked shops owned by an opposition supporter, he said. The three-member Commonwealth committee, or troika, is made up of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki and Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Analysts say President Robert Mugabe is likely to be pleased with the deal as Nigeria and South Africa have in the past opposed sanctions on Harare. A statement from the summit in Coolum, Queensland, said possible measures against Mr Mugabe's government range from "collective disapproval to suspension", if the poll is not free or fair. Mr Howard said it had not been easy to reach a deal which was a "quick, sure and fair mechanism". "I think it's a credible outcome for the Commonwealth," he added. Significantly, Zimbabwe had been party to the agreement, President Obasanjo told the BBC. "Frankly, and without any feeling of 'oh, I have lost out or I have won', there's no winner, no loser. The consensus agreement we have reached, we are all the better for it," Mr Obasanjo said. But British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the summit ought to have gone all the way. "The case for suspending Zimbabwe now, I think, is very plain," Mr Blair said. Zimbabwe's Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, described Britain's stance as "disgraceful", when he made an impromptu appearance at the summit. President Mugabe himself has reportedly called on Mr Blair to keep his "pink nose" out of Zimbabwe's affairs. Despite the summit's condemnation of violence in the run-up to the election, the statement refrained from blaming Mr Mugabe or his Zanu-PF party for it. - BBC News __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~