Jun 23, 2005, 22:56 GMT
Wellington - The New Zealand cabinet will consider banning the Zimbabwe cricket team from entering the country later this year when it meets on Monday, Foreign Minister Phil Goff said on Friday.
The government has deplored human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and President Robert Mugabe's demolition of squatter camps that has left tens of thousands homeless and reportedly killed two children who were crushed when their homes were being demolished.
Goff, who has said the government is powerless to stop the New Zealand national cricket team from touring Zimbabwe in August, said banning a return tour scheduled for December was a way New Zealand could make a stand on the issue.
He told Radio New Zealand a ban would send a "strong, clear and compelling message to the Mugabe government that what it's doing is abhorred by New Zealanders and is unacceptable".
Goff said: "Unlike preventing New Zealanders travelling overseas, we have every right to stop people from foreign countries coming to New Zealand."
Although the government has not yet made a formal decision, Goff expressed confidence that it would support his call for a ban.
Prime Minister Helen Clark is on the record as saying she "wouldn't be seen dead in Zimbabwe", and Goff has consistently attacked what he calls "the current appalling abuses of human rights and relentless trend of the Zimbabwe government towards a dictatorship".
Goff said: "The Zimbabwe cricket team should not anticipate that it will be granted entry to New Zealand".
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