President Robert Mugabe will be barred from attending a summit of Commonwealth nations in December over human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, Australia said today.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has received assurances from Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo that Mr Mugabe will not be invited to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth, a 54-nation grouping of mainly former British colonies, in March last year in protest at vote-rigging during presidential elections in 2002 and continued human rights abuses.