Mugabe cancels UN trip after officials denied visas

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Mugabe cancels UN trip after officials denied visas

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Mugabe has been forced to cancel a UN trip after his wife and some of his aides were denied visas.

26 October,2011 11:09 pm

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has been forced to cancel a trip to Geneva for a United Nations meeting this week after his wife and some of his aides were denied visas, state media said on Wednesday.Western countries, including the United States and the European Union, imposed travel and financial sanctions on Mugabe and senior officials from his ZANU-PF party almost a decade ago over charges of rights abuses and vote rigging.But the sanctions, which Mugabe argues are punishment for his seizures and redistribution of white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks, have traditionally not been applied for meetings organised by the United Nations.On Wednesday, the official Herald newspaper said Mugabe had scrapped a trip to Switzerland for a summit of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) after his wife Grace, Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, chief spokesman George Charamba and three other senior officials were refused travel permits.The Zimbabwe government has lodged a protest with both the Swiss government and the United Nations.