May 14, 2007, 11:38 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - Zimbabwean Information Minister Monday hit out at Australian Prime Minister John Howard accusing him of flouting human rights by banning the cricket team from visiting Zimbabwe later this year.
By exerting political pressure on their national cricket team, Howard was flouting United Nations principles on human rights because sport is a human right which must be respected, the Herald newspaper quoted Sikhanyiso Ndlovu as saying.
Ndlovu accused Australia of being the worst enemy of blacks because it had condemned its aboriginal population to reserves and drunkenness, the Herald said.
On Sunday, Howard banned the Australian cricket team from touring Zimbabwe in September for a series of three one-day matches.
If the tour were allowed to go ahead it would be an enormous boost to President Robert Mugabe, who he called a 'grubby dictator'.
The Australian government had decided to ban the tour on the part of the Australian cricket team because it was not fair to leave 'a foreign policy decision to young sportsmen'.
Mugabe's government has been under intense international scrutiny since it began a crackdown against the opposition and civil rights activists in March.
Dozens of activists and opposition officials have been arrested and tortured in police custody as Mugabe's government moves to crush dissent amid the country's worst economic crisis in 27 years of independence.
Ndlovu accused Howard of supporting Zimbabwe's former colonial power Britain, which is highly critical of the Mugabe government.
Howard 'must learn to accept that Zimbabwe is a sovereign state ... not a British colony,' said Ndlovu, adding, he must abide by the international rules on sport and let the national cricket team travel to Zimbabwe.
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