Angry at Vote, Commonwealth Bars Zimbabwe LONDON, March 19 - Flanked by the presidents of South Africa and Nigeria, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia today announced a yearlong suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth, a group of 54 nations, mostly former British colonies. The unusual step was meant to punish President Robert Mugabe for his stewardship of elections this month that were widely criticized outside Africa as rigged. The two African leaders, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, maintained a cryptic silence while Mr. Howard spoke, endorsing the decision by their presence at a news conference but avoiding embroilment in a debate over whether they now view Mr. Mugabe's presidency as illegitimate. While less than an expulsion, the move still deepened the diplomatic isolation of Zimbabwe, which has already been battered by political violence, hunger, economic decline and the threat of labor unrest. It means Zimbabwean officials will be barred from meetings held by the Commonwealth, an organization that carries some cachet as an important club bridging the north-south divide. The suspension was decided by the three men, who met as a committee charged with deciding the Commomwealth's response. The decision, made at the headquarters in Marlborough House, has left two of the men facing an acute dilemma. Mr. Mbeki and Mr. Obasanjo - both of whose countries have under past undemocratic regimes been excluded from the Commonwealth - are torn between solidarity with a fellow African leader who was a crusader against colonialism, and their commitment to democratic standards as part of African economic regeneration. Mr. Howard was chairman of the three-nation committee. The move avoids an open rift between its majority members in Africa and Asia, some of which have tended to side with Mr. Mugabe, and rich, white-ruled countries like Britain, Canada and Australia, which have criticized him. Yet it adds one more voice to those labeling Mr. Mugabe a pariah and increasing pressure on him to seek reconciliation, possibly through new elections. The opprobrium spread further today when Switzerland became the latest country to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, "in view of the manipulation of the presidential elections and ongoing human rights violations," the Swiss government said. Under other restrictions, Mr. Mugabe and Zimbabwe's most senior leaders are already barred from travel to the United States and the European Union. "The committee has decided to suspend Zimbabwe from the councils of the Commonwealth for a period of one year with immediate effect," Mr. Howard said, reading the statement alone, apparently as a face-saving gesture to Mr. Mbeki, whose own election observers in Zimbabwe found the vote "legitimate." The response to Mr. Mugabe's behavior was seen by many outsiders as a token of South Africa's and Nigeria's own commitment to democracy as a way of fostering economic renewal. At a meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, for instance, the financier George Soros said today that the Zimbabwe elections "have cast doubt on the ability of the African states to create suitable conditions for private investment." If the Commonwealth had not suspended Zimbabwe - an act Mr. Howard saw as "at the severe end" of available punishments - such criticism would only have sharpened. Yet many African politicians, including Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe opposition leader defeated in the election, had expressed doubt that the Commonwealth would take any action at all. The suspension was accompanied by suggestions for easing Zimbabwe's drastic food shortages and economic decline. The Commonwealth also supported moves to resolve the country's violent crisis over the seizure of white farmers' land, backing Mr. Mugabe in his commitment to redistribute territory among landless black Zimbabweans. This was apparently intended to keep the door open to dialogue. "Land is at the core of the crisis in Zimbabwe," Mr. Howard said in his statement. According to the statement, the leaders of South Africa and Nigeria will continue to talk to Mr. Mugabe about ways to lift the suspension. For all its critics say it is ineffective, the Commonwealth has nonetheless sought to project itself as an arbiter of democratic legitimacy among often delinquent members. In the 60's, white-ruled South Africa quit the Commonwealth rather than be suspended over apartheid; Nigeria was suspended in the 1990's during military rule because of the execution of the human rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa. Fiji has been suspended twice, once for 10 years. Pakistan has been suspended since the military coup two years ago that brought Gen. Pervez Musharraf to power. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company