exhorting the Mugabe government to abide by the Harare Declaration and democratic principles. The proposed EU-AU summit in Portugal in December 2007 illustrates the praxis. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has indicated that he will not attend if President Mugabe is present. The government controlled press in Zimbabwe has predictably sought to portray this stance as evidence that Zimbabwe’s problems are a bilateral dispute with Britain over its land policy and as evidence of neo-colonial interference with its sovereignty. Yet paragraph 3 of the Commonwealth Action Programme provides for the limitation of government to government contact as a further step when a defaulting member withdraws from the Commonwealth. Britain’s stance is precisely that which the Commonwealth Action Programme proposes. If this paragraph is formally adopted by the Commonwealth as its policy, as it ought, Britain would not stand isolated in this regard. Nor could the position then be regarded as interference by powerful western nations. The AU members of the Commonwealth attending the summit would also be obliged to implement that which was agreed by them as Commonwealth members. Such caucusing would not be without recent precedent. The Commonwealth Secretary General, Don McKinnon, attended the 9th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in June 2007 and met with the AU members of the Commonwealth as a caucus. Yet there is no suggestion that the Commonwealth’s policy towards Zimbabwe was discussed. Instead the current position is that far from implementing the Commonwealth Action Programme to which they agreed in regard to limitation of government to government contact, AU members of the Commonwealth are vocal in insisting on President Mugabe’s attendance at the summit. It would be understandable if some observers are led to believe it is precisely because the AU-Commonwealth nations are reluctant to enforce the Harare Declaration and its implementing instrument, the Commonwealth Action Programme, that the Commonwealth as a body has failed to do so. Such a position would be against the brave tradition of the Commonwealth to date, undermines the spirit of the Harare Declaration, and undermines the integrity of CMAG. The EU - AU summit in December 2007 is but one example both of how implementation of the Commonwealth Action Programme could have a salutary effect, and the deleterious effect of disengagement with the Zimbabwe Question. Accordingly, with regard to political/diplomatic initiatives, involving the Commonwealth, other international bodies and the Zimbabwe Government, the Commonwealth should consider pursuing the following actions: 20