From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Sep 11 2008 - 09:06:08 EDT
Eritrea embroiled in row with Canada over visa refusal
Thu 11 Sep 2008
By Jack Kimball
KAMPALA (Reuters) - Eritrea on Thursday condemned Canada's refusal
to grant its foreign minister a visa on the grounds that he took part
in the Red Sea state's 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia.
The conflict which led to independence in 1991 has taken on mythic proportions for many Eritreans.
"The Government of Eritrea strongly condemns this hostile act and
expressly requests the Canadian authorities to rectify this outrageous
conduct," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on state-run Web
site www.shabait.com.
The government also posted a letter from Canada's embassy in Kenya,
which said Osman Saleh's involvement in the 1961-1991 war with Addis
Ababa had prevented him from getting a visa.
"You were a member of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front
between 1979 and 1991. The EPLF was a group that engaged in the
subversion of a government by force," the letter said.
"Canadian Federal Court jurisprudence confirms that membership in a
group that attempts to subvert even a despotic government is sufficient
to render inadmissibility," it added.
Canadian officials in Nairobi were not immediately available for comment.
Some Western nations have been slow to take Cold War-era African
rebels off their old terrorist lists. In June, U.S. lawmakers finally
erased "terrorist" references to South Africa's Nelson Mandela.
Eritrea has recently enjoyed relatively good relations with Canada,
particularly compared to its strained ties with the United States.
Asmara accuses Washington of failing to force Ethiopia to withdraw
troops from a disputed border region.
In its statement, Eritrea's Foreign Ministry said Canada's move was an "embarrassing aberration" in diplomatic conduct.
"What is more horrendous is, however, the reasons that the
country's immigration authorities have given to explain their
provocative act," Asmara said.
During Osman's time in the EPLF, Eritrean rebels battled the forces
of Ethiopian dictator Haile Mengistu Mariam, whose "Red Terror" regime
murdered tens of thousands until he was overthrown in 1991.
Eritrea and Ethiopia went to war in 1998 over the Horn of Africa
neighbours' frontier, killing 70,000 people. Both nations remain
deadlocked over the 1000-km (620-mile) border.
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN135506.html
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