Furious Mugabe threatens to quit Commonwealth

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe yesterday lashed out at the Commonwealth, repeating threats to pull Zimbabwe out of the organisation after he was barred from attending a summit taking place in Nigeria.

Speaking at the opening of his ZANU-PF party's annual conference, Mugabe also defended his government's seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to impoverished blacks.

In the speech broadcast on state television, Mr Mugabe accused his critics in the Commonwealth of meddling in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.

"Zimbabwe is a free and independent country that cannot brook interference with its sovereignty," he told about 3,000 delegates gathered in the southern town of Masvingo.

"If the choice was made for us ... to remain with our sovereignty and lose membership of the Commonwealth, then I would say then let the Commonwealth go," he said. "What is to us? It is a club. There are other clubs we can join."

Zimbabwe was suspended from the 54-member Commonwealth's policy-making councils after disputed presidential elections last year, which independent observers said were marred by intimidation and vote-rigging.

Despite pressure by African countries like Zambia and Malawi to readmit Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe was not invited to attend the Commonwealth heads of state meeting that got underway Friday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Banners displayed inside a giant tent set up on college grounds for the ZANU-PF congress attacked British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon among Zimbabwe's most outspoken critics.

"Blair the toilet, Howard the coward, McKinnon the liar," declared one. "To hell with the racist white Commonwealth," read another.

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst political and economic crisis, with rampant inflation and acute shortages of food, gasoline and other essentials.

The often-violent seizures of white-owned farms, coupled with erratic rains, have crippled the agriculture-based economy. Mr Mugabe, 79, argues the land had been returned to its rightful owners.