Theodore Simburudari, the president of IBUKA, a Rwandan umbrella organisation representing survivors of the Rwandan genocide, was recently denied* a visitor’s visa for Canada to attend a conference on the grounds that he wouldn’t answer a question on a visa application about his ethnicity. “All citizens, residents and former residents of Rwanda born before 1980” wishing to visit or travel through Canada must respond to a questionnaire that asks, in detail, questions about the applicant’s political involvements, military activities, involvement in war crimes or genocide. Given that hundreds of genocidaires have moved to and are currently living in Canada, it is reasonable for Canada to ask for more information of visiting Rwandans than a regular visa application requires. This, however, does not cover question eight on the “Rwanda Questionnaire”:
8. What are the number on your pre-1996 Rwandan ID card and the name of the ethnic group listed for you on this card? Please attach to this questionnaire photocopies of identity documents issued to you before 1996 (including your Rwandan ID card)
It’s unacceptable in the first instance for Canada to ask about a visitor’s ethnicity. It’s especially unacceptable in this case given how loaded the question is. The ID cards were initially issued by Belgian colonial authorities and created firm racial categories where they didn’t previously exist. The cards were kept by post-colonial governments, and, in the 1994 genocide, producing a Tutsi ID card at a roadblock was a death sentence. References to ethnicity on ID cards were abolished in 1995, and public discussion of ethnicity was made illegal. Callixte Kabayiza, president of Page-Rwanda describes the question as being analogous to asking Europeans if they are Jewish and asking them to produce their yellow star. It isn’t just Simburudari who has been denied permission to visit Canada for refusing to answer this question either. The New Times (Kigali) notes that both a former Kigali mayor and the Governor of the Central Bank had likewise been denied visas for Canada for not answering this question. The Canadian Embassy in Nairobi knows how many others have likewise been rejected. They’ve been quiet on the matter. This is simply not acceptable. Canada has no business asking the question to begin with, but it’s even worse than that because the question contravenes Rwandan law and asks Rwandan citizens to break the law in order to get a visa, and beyond even that, it makes use of a profoundly racist document with a particularly gruesome history that hasn’t been valid for over a decade. The question must be dropped. It is scandalous that Canada is engaging in what amounts to racial profiling.
Page-Rwanda are mounting a public campaign on this issue, with the aim of pressuring Immigration to have the question dropped from the questionnaire and the organization has encouraged the circulation and publication of this information as widely as possible.
* Simburudari was later granted the visa after public protest, but it was too late for him to attend the conference.
This is for London readers — especially those who thought that on balance, the removal of Saddam Hussein would be of net benefit to humanity, and consequently should take an even closer interest in the fate of Kurdish and Iraqi asylum seekers — but anyone with a shred of empathy for fellow human beings should attend. Conveniently, it’s even in your Friday-extended lunch hour, so you don’t have any excuse for not going along to lend your support.
Demonstrate Friday 11th April 2008
12:00 to 14:00
Home Office
2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF
On Thursday 27th March 2008 a number of refused asylum seekers from Iraq were forcibly returned by ‘Ethnic Charter Flight’ to Kurdistan/Iraq. Exact details of numbers on the flight are not known but some of those to be removed that day were not and returned to various IRC’s. Those returned are still facing removal, one of those is Yousuf Ahmed Ibrahim who is due to be removed on Wednesday 23rd April by Royal Jordanian Airlines.
The demonstration will be calling for:
Immediate stop to the forced removal of Kurdish asylum seekers and cessation of all kind of pressure on Kurdish asylum seekers
Formally recognise Kurdish and Iraqi asylum seekers as victims of war and grant them the right to asylum
Release Kurdish asylum seekers from immigration removal centres
Organised by: International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR), Kurdish Culture Centre KCC, Kurdistan Refugee Women’s Organisation.(KRWO),CHAK, Kurdistan Forum, Federation of Iraqi Refugees in Nottingham, Kurdish Project Art Centre, Wolverhampton Kurdish Community Association, Kurdish Culture Centre- Kirklees. Federation of Iraqi Refugees in Leicester, Kurdish Syrian and British Friendship -Leeds Kurdish Community, Kurdish Communities Federation-Kirklees, Kurdish Women’s Organisation- Kirklees, Re-live Magazine, Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq
Supported by: John McDonnell MP, Jean Lambert MEP, Doug Holton from Stop Deporting Children, Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, No Sweat, George Binette & Liz Leicester International officers of the Camden branch of UNISON, Estella Schmid from peace in Kurdistan Campaign & CAMPACC.
The next UN investigator into Israeli conduct in the occupied territories has stood by comments comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to those of the Nazis.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Richard Falk said he believed that up to now Israel had been successful in avoiding the criticism that it was due.
Professor Falk is scheduled to take up his post for the UN Human Rights Council later in the year.
The really shocking thing about this story is that there are actually people who see his views as a reason not to be appointed to the UN Human Rights Council, rather than it being a reason to appoint him.
Start again — Ricky Gervais — a reason to backlash the backlash here.
Via John - who originally fell for the backlash when he shouldn’t have fell for the backlash in the first place but has nonetheless partially redeemed himself by admitting his backlash tendencies were perhaps premature backlashnessness urges.
