Zimbabwe will never return to 'evil' Commonwealth: Mugabe

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Sunday marked 24 years of freedom from British colonial rule by saying his country will never re-join the "evil" Commonwealth.
Mugabe, who has steered the southern African country since independence in 1980, once again ruled out any possibility of returning to the grouping of mainly former colonies of Britain.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the organisation after Mugabe's controversial re-election in 2002 when it concluded that the polls were marred by high levels of violence and intimidation.
When the Commonwealth last December extended that suspension, an angry Mugabe said he would pull his country out for good.
"We shall never go back to this evil organisation," the president told tens of thousands of people gathered Sunday for celebrations at a giant sports stadium in the capital Harare.
Mugabe said Zimbabwe had quit the Commonwealth because of British attempts to "enslave us, to make us puppets."
"When we left we did not say we shall return, the door through which we left is now locked," he told a cheering crowd, comprising mainly his supporters. Nigeria leader Olusegun Obasanjo had early this year pledged to do all in his power to return Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth.
Mugabe on Sunday warned that Zimbabwe's membership to organisations "outside the continent and the United Nations is strictly on principles of equality and mutual respect.
"We will never allow our membership of these organisations to be used against our own interest." "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again, never, ever," he said.
Last week Zimbabwe escaped exploration of its rights record at the UN Human Rights Commission annual meeting in Switzerland after Asian and African countries blocked the move through a "no action" motion.
Mugabe said he was willing to work with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change - which alleged that the 2002 presidential polls were marred by fraud and intimidation - if they stopped being double-faced.
He castigated Zimbabweans who go overseas, especially to Britain to do menial jobs, leaving their home country "with so much land, so much fields to work on."