Australia hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( CHOGM ) at Coolum , Queensland . Following widescale electoral fraud and human rights violations in Robert Mugabe 's Zimbabwe , the CHOGM established a troika of Commonwealth statesmen : chaired by John Howard and also composed of President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa , it met in London and agreed that Zimbabwe should be suspended from the Commonwealth . The troika met a further time in Nigeria , but with little outcome . Howard continued to lobby within the Commonwealth for further action , but faced heated opposition from Mbeki and other leaders . Howard wrote in his 2010 biography that Zimbabwe had been the " just about the most demoralising foreign affairs issue " he ever faced as prime minister
2002 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2002
Howard Government