Detained Mugabe aide leaves UK
A member of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe’s regime tonight left Britain, less than 24 hours after he was detained and faced deportation.
Joshua Malinga, the ruling Zanu PF Party’s deputy secretary for disability, was held at Gatwick Airport last night while trying to board a flight for a disability conference in New York, and accused the British Government of being ‘‘unfair and unjust’’.
He left Britain tonight on an Air Zimbabwe flight from Gatwick to Harare although officials were unable to confirm if he was formally deported.
Wheelchair-bound Mr Malinga, who was travelling with his disabled wife, claimed not to have known he was one of 72 leading Zimbabweans subject to a European Union travel ban.
He was travelling in his role as president of the international human rights group Disabled Peoples International, he said, and was due to attend a United Nations conference in New York.
Mr Malinga claimed he was detained by officials at Gatwick for up to nine hours without being given full details of his fate.
‘‘I feel strongly that this is unfair and unjust,’’ he said.
‘‘That is a violation of my human rights as a disabled person. I was sitting in a wheelchair the whole day, without proper treatment. They did not attempt to understand my situation.’’
The EU imposed ‘‘targeted sanctions’’ against Zimbabwe after Mugabe refused to let European observers monitor the presidential elections in February.
Just 20 people were initially subject to a range of measures, including the travel ban, but 52 new names, including first lady Grace Mugabe and Mr Malinga, were added at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
The Foreign Office said today it was ‘‘committed to the EU sanctions’’ but a Zimbabwean government minister threatened to retaliate by banning some Britons from travelling to the country.
Information minister Jonathan Moyo dubbed the British Government ‘‘petty, mean and dangerous’’ and told the state-run newspaper The Herald: ‘‘Perhaps the time has come for our own list of Brits who are not welcome in Zimbabwe.’’
Mr Malinga sought to distance himself from mounting world concern over the violent suppression of Mugabe’s opponents but said he would not apologise for being a member of the Zanu PF politburo, saying it was his right to belong to a political party.
‘‘My organisation (Disabled Peoples International) doesn’t condone any violence of any sort because violence creates disablement,’’ he said.
‘‘I don’t see why party issues have to be government issues. The issue at the moment is between my president Robert Mugabe and Tony Blair.
‘‘Is everyone who belongs to the Labour Party connected with the injustices they are doing all over the world and are they punished?’’
He continued: ‘‘I don’t see the relationship between my party position and my other obligations. I think my different roles should be looked at differently.’’
Rachel Hurst, special rapporteur on human rights for Mr Malinga’s group, Disabled Peoples International, claimed Mr Malinga was the ‘‘Nelson Mandela of the disabled movement’’.
She said: ‘‘He has done so much for disability rights throughout the world and that he should be treated in this way is appalling.
‘‘He shouldn’t have been on the list, that is the crux of the matter. Mugabe talks to him about disability issues and nothing else.’’
Ms Hurst, who has known Mr Malinga since 1985, added: ‘‘Anybody who had any real knowledge of the politics in Zimbabwe would know perfectly well that Joshua does not have the influence that they are saying he has.’’
But Foreign Office Minister Baroness Amos said the travel ban was extended to cover people ‘‘who have to take responsibility for the fact that they are ruining a country, a country which a few years ago was the bread basket for southern Africa and now can’t feed its own people.’’
