McKinnon pessimistic about Zimbabwe

The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, has expressed pessimism over prospects for change in Zimbabwe.

Mr McKinnon said that nothing was improving in Zimbabwe, despite international pressure, and there was no let-up in the policy of seizing white-owned farms for black resettlement.

Some 3,000 commercial farmers were given until midnight last Monday to stop working their farms and just over a month to leave.

The Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe for a year in March, in protest at alleged flaws in the country's presidential election.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service