BRITAIN SLAMS DOOR ON ZIMBABWE'S BANK CHIEF

Britain has barred Zimbabwe's central bank governor from visiting the country, a British government source said on Friday.


Zimbabwe's bank chief Gideon Gono, left, joins President Robert Mugabe, right, as a persona non grata in the West.

Gideon Gono joins President Robert Mugabe and other senior officials who are banned from visiting Britain and the European Union, the United States and Australia as part of targeted sanctions imposed on Harare over alleged human rights abuses.

The official Herald newspaper reported on Friday that Gono was denied entry into Britain by the Home Office (interior ministry) as his presence would be "inappropriate." A British government source confirmed Gono was not welcome.

"No decision to exclude is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate on issues," the source said. "Gideon Gono is not welcome in the UK. We do not intend to let him go there."

The Home Office had no immediate comment.

The newspaper said the Home Office wrote to Gono on August 17 notifying him of its decision and alleging he was involved in "corrupt practices (that have) undermined democracy and the rule of law in Zimbabwe".

Don't Miss
Zimbabwe's inflation highest in world
U.N. pleads for aid to Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe spurns reform amid crisis
"The Home Secretary, therefore, considers that it would not be appropriate to allow you the privilege of entering the UK where you would enjoy a platform to justify your actions," the newspaper reported the letter as saying.

The Home Office charged that Gono's last visit in 2004 -- when he launched a program for Zimbabwean residents in Britain to remit foreign currency -- had led to public protests in Britain by crowds accusing him of trying to raise funds to prop up Mugabe's government.

Gono was not immediately available to comment. His spokesman told the Herald that only Zimbabweans could judge the central bank governor, who has frequently called for an end to Zimbabwe's standoff with Mugabe's Western critics.

"It's the people of Zimbabwe who decide whether the actions of our governor are inimical to their interests or not," the spokesman said. "It certainly cannot be Australia or anyone else for that matter."

Since his appointment in December 2003, Gono has been at he centre of government efforts to revive Zimbabwe's battered economy, now in its eighth straight year of recession and ravaged by the world's highest inflation rate.

Critics blame Mugabe's controversial policies -- such as the seizure of white-owned farms to resettle blacks -- for a crisis marked by chronic food, fuel and food shortages.

Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole ruler since independence from Britain in 1980, denies mismanaging the economy and blames Western sanctions for the meltdown

SOURCE: CNN