13 SEPTEMBER 1997, Page 30

Mark of respect

I HOPE that the Commonwealth's finance ministers will observe a moment's silence in honour of the late Mobutu Sese Soko of Zaire. Their annual boondoggle convenes in Mauritius next week, so that they can move on to Hong Kong, using their free first-class air tickets from the International Monetary Fund. It is true that he never joined their club — preferring, as he did, to play off the French and the Americans but he was an inspiration to many of them, amassing a fortune which, by a strange coincidence, was the same size as his poor country's debts. There will be heads of state represented in Mauritius who have learned from his example how to take the Common out of Wealth.