Zimbabwe strips former PM Smith of his citizenship
Posted: Wednesday, March 27, 2002

By Basildon Peta Zimbabwe Correspondent Independent UK

Ian Smith, the former white minority leader of Zimbabwe, accused the country's government yesterday of illegally stripping him of his Zimbabwean passport and citizenship.

"They have cancelled my nationality. It is illegal and I'm not going to let them get away with it," Mr Smith said. Officials at the Harare passport office refused to see him after telling him his passport was not being renewed before a trip to Britain and the US next week.

Mr Smith, the son of a Scottish immigrant, was born in western Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was then known, and was prime minister when the government unilaterally declared independence from Britain. Although he renounced his British citizenship in 1984, four years after Zimbabwe became independent with black majority rule, he has not renounced it again as required under new rules introduced last year by President Robert Mugabe's government. MORE 

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