SYDNEY, July 15: New Zealand will not declare next month’s tour of Zimbabwe illegal over human rights abuses but will call on South Africa to help it isolate Zimbabwe.

“It is not the New Zealand government’s intention to legislate and prevent the tour,” New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said on Friday, citing the right of individuals and organisations from New Zealand to travel freely.

New Zealand is leading an international push to have Zimbabwe banned from the cricket tour schedule over concerns of abuses under President Robert Mugabe. New Zealand had asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to change its policy requiring teams to tour Zimbabwe.

The game’s ruling body said this week the tour should go ahead unless the New Zealand government ruled it illegal. New Zealand has already said it will not provide visas for a reciprocal tour it is due to host late this year.

Goff said New Zealand officials, including from the New Zealand High Commission in London, would meet ICC President Ehsan Mani later on Friday.

Goff said New Zealand want Zimbabwe excluded from the International Monetary Fund and were investigating whether a case could be mounted against Mugabe in the International Criminal Court.

Representations are being made to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union and the Group of Eight nations.

He called on the development community in South Africa and other neighbouring countries to isolate Zimbabwe, just as nations like Australia and New Zealand had responded to African National Congress calls to isolate South Africa during the apartheid era.

New Zealand, Britain and Australia want Zimbabwe banned from the ICC’s future tours programme. Goff wants New Zealand to be allowed to cancel the tour without having to pay the ICC a minimum fine of $2 million.

Goff said there was no sign Australia and New Zealand had made a breakthrough in their objectives yet. “You’ve got to take a stand and you’ve got to start somewhere,” he said.

Tours to Zimbabwe by Australia and England were cancelled last year when the ICC took away Zimbabwe’s test status because of the team’s weakness following a player boycott. The ICC has since restored Zimbabwe’s status.—Reuters