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Commonwealth Grapples with Zimbabwe Response [Excerpt] Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who has backed British calls for measures, was first out of the ministerial meeting, looking angry.

But officials said Malaysia was happy with the outcome, describing the recommendations as "logical." Malaysia has opposed taking steps against Zimbabwe until after the poll.

Commonwealth membership runs the gamut from rich, industrialized nations like Britain and Australia to some of the world's poorest, such as tiny Pacific islands.

It has been unable to agree on Zimbabwe before and inaction now -- as the clock ticks down to a general election the United States Thursday said it did not believe would be "untainted" -- could again raise questions about its relevance.

But McKinnon dismissed suggestions that failing to act would undermine the credibility of the Commonwealth which prides itself on being the moral guardian of its member nations.

"I don't believe this will be our obituary," he said.

The United States said the election may prove to be the most critical moment in Zimbabwe's history since independence from Britain in 1980.

"It could be the moment at which Zimbabwe's potential as a beacon of freedom on a troubled continent is affirmed, or the moment at which Zimbabwe's leadership decides to fully embrace the dictates of despotism," Walter Kansteiner, the top State Department official for Africa, told congressmen in Washington. [End Excerpt]

Zimbabwe farmers flee, start over[Excerpt] Zimbabwe, once one of Southern Africa's most stable and prosperous countries, has been engulfed by violence since early 2000. President Robert Mugabe, in a bid to garner popular support in the country's parliamentary elections, began backing bands of squatters who invaded white-owned farms, driving off or even killing the farmers and their families. The invasions crippled the agricultural sector and led to widespread hunger and hyperinflation……….

Many of the new farmers say they will return to Zimbabwe if the opposition MDC wins the election and ends the government's land seizure program. But few hold out much hope that the MDC will be allowed to win, regardless of what the people say at the polls on March 9 and 10.

Before long, some predicted, the countryside of Zimbabwe will look like that of Mozambique, with the ruins of scattered farmhouses as the only testament to the flourishing commercial agriculture that once thrived there.

"I have no doubt that if things go on as they are, my farmhouse in Zimbabwe will be roofless in six months," says the MDC supporter. "The country will disintegrate into nothing within a year." [End Excerpt]