ANC leaders still regarded as terrorist in Canada

FORMER Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler has called on his government to remove names of African National Congress (ANC) leaders from lists of terrorists, a campaign be hopes to fulfil before April 27, when SA marks 18 years since achieving democracy.

Since the 1960s and 1970s when the apartheid government designated the ANC as a terrorist group, some other countries, including the US and Canada, had
followed suit However, the U.S changed its position in 2008.

In 2008, 14 years after South Africa gained its political independency, Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom Nelson Mandela was still flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needed special permission to visit the USA which US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, called "embarrassing," and some members of Congress vow to fix it.

Mandela and other members of South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC), the once-banned anti-Apartheid organization. In the 1970s and '80s, the ANC was officially designated a terrorist group by the country's ruling white minority.

Rice told a Senate committee her department has to issue waivers for ANC members to travel to the USA.

In Canada, Mr Cotler, now the opposition Liberal Party's spokesman on human rights, on Monday called on the Canadian government to revise the exclusionary visa policy imposed on ANC members, saying it was a shame that leaders of the "legendary anti-apartheid movement", which is celebrating its centenary, were still being treated as terrorists.

"It is unacceptable for Canada to treat the heroes of the anti-apartheid movement — a historical struggle for a democratic, egalitarian, and non-racial SA as presumed terrorists," said Mr Cotler.

His remarks followed a recent visit to SA where he met Cabinet ministers and the parliamentary committee on justice.

Throughout these meetings, "senior officials emphasised their concern with Canada's troubling visa policies and their prejudicial consequences for current and former ANC members who wish to visit Canada" he said.

In 2010, eyebrows were raised over, a Canadian immigration board's decision to grant asylum to a South African who claimed that he was persecuted for being white. However, this decision was later overturned and Brandon Huntley is now fighting extradition from Canada.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said yesterday it was unfortunate that there where still countries in the world that continued to label the former liberation movement and its members as terrorists.

He commended Mr Cotler for "fighting" for the abolition of "an outdated law", saying the ANC was never a terrorist organisation in the first place as it was recognised by the United Nations.

While no comment could be obtained from the Canadian high commission, Department of Internationa! Relations and Co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela said the department had always resolved visa queries through the high commission.

Mr Cotler said he had tabled a motion in the Canadian House of Commons calling on the government to allow ANC members to visit Canada.

The ban on ANC activists had also affected former president Nelson Mandela who remained on the US terrorist watch list until 2008 when the then US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, appealed to Congress to take him off the list, calling the situation "embarrassing".

Ms Rice had also pleaded with a committee of the US Senate to push through a bill to correct the situation.