Big Challenges Face Heads in Kampala

The Commonwealth, as a CHRI report said some years ago, is about human rights and democracy or it is about nothing. In our 53 countries human rights problems abound, but it would be wrong to conclude that Commonwealth countries have a poor record by comparison with non-Commonwealth countries. On the contrary, if analysed region by region, Commonwealth countries come out rather better.

Nonetheless, the Kampala Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is shaping up to be one of the most difficult for many years. Among the major issues that will confront the Heads of Government, the situations in Pakistan, Fiji Islands and Bangladesh are the more disturbing, but to these must be added the Maldives, The Gambia and Sri Lanka, as well as unsettling recent developments in parts of the Pacific such as Solomon Islands, Tonga and Papua New Guinea. Each poses human rights problems, and challenges the basic principles laid down and accepted by all member governments in the Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles of 1971, the Harare Declaration of 1991 and the Millbrook Action Programme of 1995.

Of special concern must be the position of the host country, Uganda, whose President, Yoweri Museveni, will chair the meeting and then automatically become chairperson-in-office of the Commonwealth until the next CHOGM is held in Trinidad in 2009.

When Museveni was sworn in as President after years of turmoil in Uganda he said: "The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power."

That was 21 years ago and he is still President. The 1995 Uganda constitution laid down for the presidency limits of two terms, but in 2003 the ruling party scrapped that and last year Museveni won an election that was flawed, as Commonwealth observers pointed out, partly because of legal harassment during the campaign of opposition leader Kizza Besigye and his Forum for Democratic Change candidates. At the time of writing, Besigye and some of his colleagues are still on bail on treason charges.

In a speech during his visit to Uganda in June, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon boldly warned that unless the situation changed, one question bound to be fired at him when CHOGM took place would be : “Where stands the case against Kizza Besigye, and the need to separate politics from justice?”

McKinnon also asked whether the truce with the Lord's Resistance Army, which waged a bitter insurgency for years in northern Uganda, was holding, and “what sort of justice, if any, is due to Joseph Kony,” its leader. McKinnon was obviously not satisfied with what Museveni had told him privately about these matters. Two years ago the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Kony and three of his commanders for the shocking atrocities committed by his fighters and the peace deal has been blocked for months by the Court's demand for him to be handed over.

The decision to hold CHOGM in Uganda was made at the Abuja CHOGM in 2003. Four years later it has turned out to be an uncomfortable venue. Recent practice has been for the CHOGM chairman to become, for the following two years, chair of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the watchdog body of foreign ministers which monitors human rights and democratic breaches by member countries.

Aside from this embarrassment, CHOGM will find itself confronted with the even greater challenge of Zimbabwe. Although that country is not now a member of the Commonwealth, having suddenly walked out at the end of the Abuja CHOGM, pressure has been growing from civil society for the Commonwealth to help the three million Zimbabweans now in exile, mainly in South Africa, Botswana and the UK, many in distressing circumstances. Human rights in Zimbabwe have been trampled for years and the Commonwealth cannot any longer stand aside.

Most importantly, elections are to take place in Zimbabwe next year and the international community sees it as imperative that this time they are free and fair and that the countries of the African Union help to ensure that the process in member countries is properly carried out, as set down in its constitution.

Feeling is strong that after Zimbabwe walked out, the Commonwealth seemed to wash its hands of the problem and, unlike in the case of South Africa, has done nothing to help the people prepare for the day when political change comes and the country has to be rebuilt.

Officially, the Commonwealth cannot get itself involved in the affairs of non-members and Zimbabwe will not be on the agenda of the executive sessions of the Heads in Kampala. It will certainly be discussed at the Retreat where Heads are free to raise informally whatever they like, and at the civil society forums held alongside CHOGM. Whatever the official attempts to downplay the subject it will figure prominently in the media coverage leading up to the meeting.

In the last few months a major initiative on Zimbabwe has been prepared as a result of a consultation convened by the Royal Commonwealth Society in London and attended by more than 100 delegates who included MPs, representatives from many civil society organisations, the media, Commonwealth governments, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and Commonwealth Foundation as well as many Zimbabweans

Their objective is to engage the Commonwealth in preparations for the day when political change takes place and the country starts to rebuild. Their recommendations and plan for action will be discussed in Kampala during and around CHOGM and certainly at the Human Rights Forum.

Over the years the Commonwealth has been confronted by many dire events - in Abacha's Nigeria, Amin's Uganda, apartheid South Africa, Zia's Pakistan, Speight's Fiji and of course Ian Smith's Rhodesia.

All that said, the issue posed by the fast-moving situation in Pakistan could be one of the most difficult a CHOGM has had to face. Since independence in 1947 its relationship with the Commonwealth has been chequered. The country was abruptly taken out of membership by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972 and remained outside for 17 years. His daughter Benazir brought it back in 1989 after she became prime minister, but the return of military rule in 1999 led to its being suspended.

However, under pressure from Washington and London the Commonwealth restored it to full membership, albeit prematurely, in May 2004 on the understanding that President Pervez Musharraf would step down as head of the army at the end of the year. That did not happen. The Commonwealth holds the firm view that a country can only be seen as truly democratic if the roles of head of state and head of the army are separately held.

Despite this, the suspension has not been reimposed. Pressure within the Commonwealth for the lifting of the suspension came from the West, notably from UK and Australia, because Musharraf is seen as a vital ally in the so-called war on terror and the struggle against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. A presidential election is due in Pakistan only weeks before the Kampala CHOGM.

The situation in Bangladesh also poses CHOGM with a conundrum. The delay of the election there for a year and rule by civil servants supported by the army has created a unique situation. Bangladesh is a country without ministers. Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, the Foreign Affairs Adviser, effectively the foreign minister, will represent Bangladesh at CHOGM.

Under the Millbrook rules a country which overthrows an elected leader faces suspension, but Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was not actually ousted. She stepped aside as per the constitution and the country came under a caretaker government pending the imminent election. At that point therefore no elected government was in office. However, the country is now virtually under military rule and 100,000 people are reported to be under arrest. Suspension by the Commonwealth is becoming a real possibility.

Kampala will also see the election of a successor to McKinnon, whose second four-year term as Secretary-General ends on 31 March. It looks like a straight fight between the Foreign Minister of Malta, Michael Frendo, and the Indian High Commissioner to UK, Kamalesh Sharma. A third candidate is Mohan Kaul, Director-General of the Commonwealth Business Council. Malaysia nominated its Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister, Dr Raid Yatim, but within weeks he withdrew, apparently without even informing his own Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi.

The election of secretary-general is carried out at CHOGM and is personally supervised by its chairman who counts and announces the result. Each Head has one vote in a straight first-past-the-post contest. If Sharma is elected he will be the fifth Secretary-General since the Secretariat was set up in 1965 and the first to come from Asia.