Britain to deport hero of disabled

A disabled Zimbabwean politician detained at Gatwick airport on Friday as he tried to fly out to New York, is a celebrated advocate of the rights of the disabled worldwide, and Britain is punishing the "wrong guy", Zimbabwean analysts say.

Joshua Malinga, a deputy secretary, in President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, for the disabled and the disadvantaged, was awarded a medal by President Bush in 2000 for work in the fight for equal rights for people with disabilities.

Yesterday, after his detention by immigration officers, Mr Malinga, a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair, faced deportation to Zimbabwe.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said he had been barred from using Gatwick for his transit because Britain was "committed to enforcing EU sanctions on Mugabe and his officials". She said: "There could be no exceptions."

But the spokeswoman was non-committal when pressed on whether or not the action over Mr Malinga meant that President Robert Mugabe and his ministers would now be barred from entering Europe or from using its transit facilities. The EU travel sanctions do not apply to meetings convened by the UN.

Lovemore Madhuku, the chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, Zimbabwe's largest civic group, said the decision to target Mr Malinga and his disabled wife, while leaving Mr Mugabe, his wife and ministers, to "roam Europe freely", meant the EU was not serious about its sanctions. "I don't understand the logic ... Mr Malinga is not an influential person in Mugabe's government, everyone here knows that."

Just over a week ago, Mr Mugabe commandeered a London-bound Air Zimbabwe plane to drop him in Spain for his connecting flight to meet Cuba's President Fidel Castro. Recently, several of his ministers have been in Europe, or used the region to move on to other destinations.

Professor Masipula Sithole, a respected University of Zimbabwe political commentator, said that the decision to target Mr Malinga while "ignoring" Mr Mugabe was incomprehensible. The UK stance on sanctions was severely compromised when "it let the big fish off the hook and targeted the less important".

Mr Malinga has told the BBC that he believed the EU travel ban applied only to Mr Mugabe's senior party members. "I did not think that would include me. I am traveling to New York because I am a leader of Disabled People's International."

The list of people targeted under the EU sanctions was expanded from the original 20 to 72 to include Mr Mugabe's wife, deputy ministers and several officials. The restrictions were imposed to punish his government for rigging the March presidential elections, and for human rights abuses and economic policies, which, say critics, are pushing the country into famine.

Zimbabweans have criticised the sanctions as being ineffectual as Mr Mugabe has repeatedly managed to circumvent them. In retaliation for Mr Malinga's treatment, Zimbabwe yesterday threatened to draw up its own list of British citizens to be barred entry to the embattled southern African country.

Jonathan Moyo, the Zanu-PF Information Minister, was quoted as saying: "This is the clearest example that the Brits have gone bananas and are harassing disabled people who should be assisted."