Three nation appeal for international cricket ban on Zimbabwe

Jun 27, 2005, 10:14 GMT

Wellington - The New Zealand cabinet on Monday approved a call to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to punish Zimbabwe for the human rights abuses of its president, Robert Mugabe.

Britain and Australia have agreed in principle to support the call after the three foreign ministers consulted on the issue over the weekend.

They are now discussing formal agreement with their national cricketing boards, a spokesman for the New Zealand minister Phil Goff told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Prime Minister Helen Clark told a news conference the cabinet gave Goff the go-ahead to seek any outcome that would allow New Zealand's national Black Caps team to call off a scheduled series in Zimbabwe in August.

New Zealand Cricket says breaking its contractual obligation to the ICC would incur a penalty of at least 2 million U.S. dollars.

Clark reiterated the government's opposition to the tour but confirmed that it would not use dictatorial powers like those of Mugabe to stop the team going.

But she said the meeting had directed Immigration Minister Paul Swain to deny visas to the Zimbabwe team which is scheduled to make a return tour of New Zealand in December.

Clark said there was a groundswell of opinion in New Zealand against the Black Caps going to the African nation during the current crisis "with 200,000 people having their homes bulldozed, children killed in the rubble, to say nothing of the ongoing torture, disappearance, suppression of the judiciary, media , economic catastrophe that we associate Zimbabwe with today".

She said the government was very concerned about any New Zealand association with Zimbabwe but ruled out the government paying the 2 million U.S. dollar penalty if the team pulled out.

Clark said New Zealand Cricket, the sports governing body, had to make its own decision.

Earlier, Kate Hoey, a British Labour Member of Parliament and former sports minister who recently made a secret visit to Zimbabwe, told Radio New Zealand that up to a million people had been displaced after their homes were demolished by the Mugabe regime.

She said suburbs of the capital, Harare, had been left looking like an earthquake had hit and it was unthinkable that anyone could go there to play and give succour to Mugabe, who is the patron of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union.