Threat to Zimbabwe citizen highlights persecution there, New Zealand says

yahoo.com ^ | February 28, 2003 | AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand has accused the government of President Robert Mugabe of persecution after a Zimbabwe court threatened to strip a Zimbabwe-born activist of her citizenship unless she renounces her right to adopt dual New Zealand nationality.

"It's a further example of how the Mugabe regime is setting out to harass and to persecute its people," Foreign Minister Phil Goff told The Associated Press on Friday.

On Thursday, Zimbabwe Supreme Court Judge Luke Malaba refused an application by Judith Todd for a Zimbabwe passport. He also gave her two days to renounce New Zealand citizenship, something Todd says she does not have.

Todd, a critic of Mugabe and other government leaders, was arrested but released without charge in 2001 in her role as a director of Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, the Daily News.

Todd, 57, argued in court she never possessed New Zealand citizenship and so did not need to renounce it under Zimbabwe citizenship laws that ban dual nationality.

She is the daughter of the late Sir Garfield Todd, a New Zealand-born missionary who was prime minister from 1953-1958 of Southern Rhodesia, the British colony renamed Zimbabwe after white rule ended in 1980.

Goff said although Judith Todd is eligible for New Zealand citizenship through her New Zealand-born parents, she has never claimed it.

"She is not a New Zealand passport holder. She is a Zimbabwean, she wishes to remain living and working in Zimbabwe," he said.

Stripping her of Zimbabwean citizenship could result in Todd being expelled from that country, he said.

Mugabe won presidential elections last March in a poll international observers said was marred by political violence, vote rigging and intimidation.

New Zealand has consistently demanded Zimbabwe be expelled from the British Commonwealth - 54 nations that are mainly former colonies of the British Empire.