A DIVIDED Commonwealth was likely to extend sanctions against Zimbabwe yesterday for violating the group?s democratic values after a debate that has reawakened old colonial resentments in parts of Africa.

The 54-strong group of mainly former British colonies suspended Zimbabwe early last year on the grounds that President Robert Mugabe had rigged his re-election and persecuted his opponents.

?The vast majority of countries are on the same side, which is one of revulsion against what is happening in Zimbabwe and determination that Zimbabwe remains suspended from the Commonwealth,? British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Sky TV.

A defiant Mugabe is threatening to withdraw from the club, accusing it of being hijacked by ?racist? Westerners, especially Zimbabwe?s former colonial ruler Britain.

The 79-year-old leader, in power since independence in 1980, has sympathy from a small but powerful group of southern African nations which are lobbying for his re-admission at the biennial summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

The racially charged row has split the Commonwealth like nothing since apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s.

It has dominated the four-day biennial summit, to the frustration of many delegates eager to discuss other topics like fair trade, AIDS and terrorism.

Leaders tried to contain the Zimbabwe feud early in the conference by appointing a six-man task force, split roughly between Mugabe friends and foes, which would report back to the full council yesterday.

?Animal farm?

But the move ended up prolonging the dispute, and Mugabe?s threats from Harare to withdraw from the group only polarised the debate further.

Mugabe accused Britain and other ?Anglo-Saxon? countries of punishing him for land reforms which have given white-owned farms to landless blacks. His argument finds resonance with many other African leaders whose political lives started in the fight against British imperialism.

Many suspect Britain?s demands for democratic reforms in Zimbabwe are just a cover for protecting white farmers and their land.

Mugabe disparaged the Commonwealth as ?a mere club? and likened it to George Orwell?s classic political satire ?Animal Farm, where some members are more equal than

others?. The six-nation task force is expected to set out moderate political steps for the ruling Zanu-PF party to take as a path to re-entry, such as engaging in real dialogue with opposition groups dominated by the Movement for Democratic Change.

?What leaders want is some pretty firm undertakings not just about what will happen, but when things will happen,? Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said.

?There has to be significant reconciliation between the MDC and Zanu-PF. If those two major parties can really agree on a way forward, we in the Commonwealth are not going to get in the way of that.?

Such a report would please Western nations by extending the suspension, while placating African states sympathetic to Mugabe by offering a clear, quick route back into the Commonwealth.

Malta and Uganda are competing to hold the next Commonwealth summit in 2005.

Tom Ashby

Randall Palmer