Letter: The Baroness, the journalist and the refugee

JOHN CARLIN'S article on the dispute between Katiza Cebekhulu - a principal subject in a book by me about Winnie Mandela - and his former legal guardian, Emma Nicholson, attributes comments to Baroness Nicholson which are false ("An incredible journey...", 17 May).

She says a Dutch translation of the book, Katiza's Journey, is full of inaccuracies and misleading statements. About 12 factual errors in the original English edition were corrected for the Dutch edition. Her lawyer's letter to the publishers actually gives a completely different reason for wanting the book withdrawn: she complains that her introduction to the English edition has been dropped from the Dutch version.

Lady Nicholson is exercising copyright privileges she swore on oath before Archbishop Desmond Tutu at South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to surrender to Mr Cebekhulu. She told the TRC she had taken the copyright on Mr Cebekhulu's behalf when he was stuck in limbo in Africa and because "I believe strongly that journalists and authors ... should not take the story out of a refugee's head ... I intend to hand it [the copyright] on to him now that he has residency in the UK".

For the past five months Mr Cebekhulu has been asking Lady Nicholson to honour this promise. His requests have been greeted with silence.