A visit from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, thankfully, seems unlikely. It’s not hard to find reasons why he should never, ever be welcome in New Zealand. Widespread human rights abuses in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe regime have been well-documented, as has the virulent rhetoric levelled at its gay and lesbian citizens. Life is horrid for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, who reportedly face regular harassment, corrective rape and perhaps even torture. Mugabe is not actually allowed in New Zealand: he is on the Immigration Department's restricted list. Any visit to New Zealand would require Cabinet approval in Parliament. While Cabinet surely wouldn’t even think once about saying anything other than no, and just in case claims he is trying to come here are not some kind of sick and unfunny April Fools joke, we’ve collated a bitter history which shows why Mugabe should never, ever be welcome in our country: 1980: Mugabe becomes Prime Minister. 1987: He becomes the first executive head of state. August 1995: after coming across a stall set up by the Association of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) at the country's annual International Book Fair in Harare. GALZ, founded in 1989 to facilitate communication within the gay community had not received much attention from the government beforehand. Mugabe's comments after seeing the stall at the book fair were: "I find it extremely outrageous and repugnant to my human conscience that such immoral and repulsive organisations, like those of homosexuals, who offend both against the law of nature and the morals of religious beliefs espoused by our society, should have any advocates in our midst and elsewhere in the world." Two weeks later during Zimbabwe's annual independence celebrations Mugabe proclaimed: "It degrades human dignity. It's unnatural, and there is no question ever of allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs. If dogs and pigs do not do it, why must human beings? We have our own culture, and we must re-dedicate ourselves to our traditional values that make us human beings. … What we are being persuaded to accept is sub-animal behaviour and we will never allow it here. If you see people parading themselves as Lesbians and Gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police!" September 1995: Zimbabwe's parliament introduces legislation banning homosexual acts. In 1996, former President Canaan Banana was arrested based on accusations made during the murder trial of his former bodyguard, Jefta Dube, and found guilty of eleven charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault in 1998. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, defrocked, and served 6 months in an open prison. In 1999, British gay rights activists, led by Peter Tatchell, attempted a citizen's arrest of Mugabe for the crime of torture. In 2001, Tatchell again tried to arrest the president in Brussels but was beaten unconscious by Mugabe's security guards. February 2006: In a speech to mark his birthday, Mugabe uses an hour long speech to warn Zimbabweans of the dangers of homosexuality and threatened pro-gay clergy with prison sentences. “Leave whites to do that,” he declared in reference to homosexuality September 2006: The grassroots Gay and Lesbian Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) is banned by the Zimbabwean government from attending a United Nations human rights workshop. May 2011: A US State Department discussion on its annual human rights report in Zimbabwe unearths claims gay Zimbabweans face widespread harassment and some have even been raped by those intending to convert their sexuality. Gay men were forced into heterosexual acts and lesbian women were raped, sometimes by male relatives, to teach them to change their ways, said Amanda Porter, political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Harare and compiler of the report. "Some families reportedly subjected men and women to corrective rape and forced marriages to encourage heterosexual conduct," she said. August 2011: Mugabe called Britain’s tolerance of gay rights “unnatural” and “filth” at the funeral of his deputy intelligence chief. According to IOL News, Mr Mugabe told the crowds: “We don’t worry ourselves about the goings-on in Europe. About the unnatural things happening there, where they turn man-to-man and woman-to-woman. We say, well, it’s their country. If they want to call their country British Gaydom, it’s up to them. That’s not our culture. We condemn that filth. “We get alarmed when these countries have the audacity to schedule us as an item to discuss in their parliament.” November 2011: Mugabe describes UK plans to divert aid away from governments who fail to recognise citizens’ human rights “satanic”. “It becomes worse and satanic when you get a prime minister like Cameron saying countries that want British aid should accept homosexuality. “To come with that diabolic suggestion to our people is a stupid offer.” February 2012: Mugabe used a speech at his 88th birthday party to attack the West and its promotion of equal rights for gays. According to New Zimbabwe, he told the reported 20,000 attendees: “We reject [gay marriage] outright and say to hell with you. “You, David Cameron, are you suggesting that you don’t know that or is it some kind of insanity or part of the culture of Europeans. “In their newspapers, that’s one of my sins. That I called [gays] worse than pigs and dogs because pigs know there are males and females. “I won’t even call him a dog because my own dog will complain and say, but what have I done? It’s even in the Bible that you create through the system of marrying. That’s how we were born, so we reject that outright and say, to hell with you. “You are free as a man to marry a woman and that is what we follow. That’s what produced you and me. This kind of insanity is now part of the culture.” May 2012: Mugabe states same-sex relationships violate the rights of women by making impossible the union of men and women needed to bear children. “When a man says he wants to get married to a man, we in Zimbabwe don’t accept it and in most Africa we don’t accept it. We can’t talk of women’s rights anymore once we go in that direction,” he told a women’s summit in Harare attended by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay. Mugabe vowed Zimbabwe and Africa at large would never recognize same-sex marriage saying it leads to human "extinction." May 2012: Zimbabwe denies it allows torture of gay and lesbian people as “lies”, but confirmed it will arrest “same sex partners found committing illegal homosexual acts”. July 2012: Police interrogate the director of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) on the grounds of insulting President Mugabe, a case that dates back to May 2010 when two group members were arrested after a letter was displayed from the mayor of San Francisco that criticized Mugabe for being homophobic. The Zimbabwe Republic Police Force has since carried out two raids on GALZ in less than two weeks, first on August 11 when riot police interrupted a launch event for GALZ's Violations Report, which documents police harassment, arbitrary arrests, and rights violations against the LGBTI community. The Huffington Post reported 44 GALZ members were detained by "visibly drunk" police officers after being assaulted with "batons, sticks, and clenched fists." GALZ headquarters were subsequently raided on August 20, during which authorities seized educational materials and office equipment, including several computers. On August 24, authorities began proceedings to shut down GALZ altogether, charging a co-chairperson with running an "unregistered" organisation in contravention of the PVO Act. August 2012: LGBTI activists in Zimbabwe say they have documented more than 30 cases of people who were arrested or detained in 2011 because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. More here. January 2013: A new Zimbabwean draft constitution includes a clause banning equal marriage for gay couples, reports suggest. Jacqui Stanford - 7th April 2013