GMW: Tewolde interview/More on visa refusal/Media coverage

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GMW: Tewolde interview/More on visa refusal/Media coverage

" GM WATCH " <info

Thu, 19 May 2005 20:08:21 +0100

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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1.Irrational, paranoid and stupid!

2.Excerpts from interview with Tewolde

3.First media report on Tewolde's visa refusal

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1.Irrational, paranoid and stupid!

 

Don't forget to send your views on this to

 

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew

Pettigrew.P

Minister of Foreign Affairs Canada

 

Here are a couple of the choice comments sent to Pettigrew that we've

seen:

 

" Are people not allowed in Canada to listen to or have views about an

unethical, ruthless and potentially life-destroying " science " anymore,

and especially not if they are Black? "

 

" This refusal strikes me as more irrational - more paranoid, and more

stupid - than the USA's withholding Linus Pauling's passport. " (see the

quote from Linus Pauling below)

 

See first media piece below (item 3).

 

For an excellent press release:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2005/19/c1507.html

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2.Excerpts from an interview with Tewolde in the current Ecologist

magazine (May 2005)

http://www.theecologist.org/

 

Tewolde: " ...contrary to the claims of the GM lobby, these crops would

not have fed nor freed us by giving us greater control over our

production, but rather enslaved Africa once more - particularly

because of the

patenting aspect. ...our farmers would have beciome serfs to the

patent-holding companies overseas. A kind of slavery would have been

reintroducded, not as historically [with] our people transported to

grow crops

in the plantations of America, but rather that we would now be forced

to grow US companies' crops in Africa's soil. "

 

Tewolde [is] something of a hate figure to global agribusiness.

 

Tewolde: " I'll give you one example, which concerns a former US

ambassador to the UN, who now runs a company that seeks to increase

investment

opportunities for commercial companies in Africa. When I was regional

representative during the negotiations over the Cartagena Protocol, this

person contacted me and said, 'Why have you created this juggernaut,

this big organisation that opposes Africa's development...' I presumed he

meant the Africa Group so I pointed out to him that my government

couldn't even afford to send me to the negotiations. I could only attend

thanks to a free ticket from the UN. My African colleagues were only

there

too thanks to hand outs from the UN... If we did manage to appeal to

others, then it must be because there was something in what we had to

say. "

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3.Africa's Top Biosafety Envoy Shut Out of Canada Talks

Stephen Leahy

http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=28747

 

BROOKLIN, Canada, May 19 (IPS) - Africa's chief negotiator for the

Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety has been denied entry into Canada to

attend

meetings to finalise key provisions regarding the international

movement of genetically engineered organisms.

 

Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, the Ethiopian government's chief

scientist, had his passport returned without the requested Canadian visa

Wednesday despite previous visits to Canada. Tewolde is trying to attend

talks starting May 30 in the Canadian city of Montreal.

 

''I have been to Montreal many times,'' Tewolde said in an interview

from Addis Ababa. ''I have never heard of something like this happening

before.''

 

While this may be just a case of ''exceptional bureaucratic bungling'',

he said, he wonders if it's a not-so-subtle but effective way of

preventing him from participating.

 

''I have always been on the opposite side of the Canadian delegation

especially on biosafety,'' he said.

 

The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the biosafety

protocol in 2000 to address the safe transfer, handling, and use of

living genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that could have an adverse

effect on biodiversity.

 

A respected scientist and champion of biodiversity, Tewolde received

the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the alternative Nobel prize)

from the king of Sweden in 2000. He is considered by some to be the

father of the Biosafety Protocol.

 

Unlike the U.S. and Canadian governments, he firmly believes in the

need for strong international regulations for genetically engineered (GE)

seeds and crops.

 

Tewolde had planned to go to Montreal to ensure that GE seeds and food

products would be labeled under the agreement. He also wanted to see

companies and governments accept liability when their seeds lead to GE

contamination.

 

''Canada doesn't want to see any serious regulations regarding GMOs,''

Tewolde said.

 

''They wouldn't want me there because I have been the spokesperson for

the African group and other developing countries.''

 

Canadian-based non-governmental organisations that support Tewolde's

position blasted the visa denial.

 

''We're not just upset, we're pissed off about this,'' said Pat Mooney,

executive director of ETC Group.

 

''I wouldn't have believed it was deliberate but after the CBD meeting

in Bangkok I'm not so sure,'' Mooney told IPS.

 

In Bangkok last February, he said, the Canadian government used

''heavy-handed tactics'' to try and lift a de-facto moratorium on the

so-called Terminator, a GE technology that makes seeds sterile. Only

strong

objections from African countries, Austria, Switzerland, Peru, and the

Philippines kept the moratorium in place.

 

The son of a farmer, Tewolde has publicly clashed with Canadian and

U.S. representatives at international meetings over issues such as

patents

on seeds and the risks of GE crops.

 

The visa denial ''is a real embarrassment for Montreal which hopes to

be a U.N. city,'' said Mooney.

 

The CBD is based in Montreal and holds many of its meetings there.

 

''We've pulled as many strings as we can to get Dr. Tewolde a visa,''

said a spokesperson for the CBD Secretariat. ''We don't know why this is

happening but we're doing our best to get him here.''

 

There have not been any other visa issues for the upcoming meeting, she

said.

 

Canadian officials responsible for issuing visas said Tewolde's

statements that his visa has been denied ''conflicts with our

information''

but refused to comment further.

 

''It's a matter of protecting the privacy of the individual involved,''

said Cara Prest, spokesperson for Canada's Citizenship and Immigration

department.

 

Tougher rules for those requiring visas to enter Canada have been in

place since June 2002. When it comes to granting visas, Prest said,

''we're also always researching new developments.''

 

The visa foul-up has also meant that Tewolde missed an African

preparatory meeting for upcoming talks on the International Treaty on

Plant

Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, he said. He also will miss

inter-regional negotiations on the biosafety protocol in Oslo, Norway

because the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi held on to his diplomatic

passport.

 

''Now that I have been prevented from coming to Montreal, who knows

which ones of you will be prevented next time?'' Tewolde wrote in an open

letter of protest.

 

Now, he said, he is waiting for the Canadian government to respond.

(END/2005)

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http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/pau0int-5

Linus Pauling: The State Department prevented me from traveling for two

years. The first time, when the Royal Society of London was holding a

two-day conference to discuss my work, I was to be the first speaker (to

discuss) work on the structure of protons. An international conference

just to discuss these discoveries that I had made. And I couldn't go to

the conference because I couldn't get the passport. So for two years,

the State Department caused trouble for me. They wouldn't tell me why.

They said " Not in the best interest of the United States, " or " Your

anti-Communist statements haven't been strong enough. " I was having a

scrap

with the Communists -- the Russians and the Soviet Union -- at the

time, and I was critical of the Soviet Union, but they used that as an

excuse, saying they weren't strong enough, my statements. I'm sure this

interfered seriously with my work. When I was awarded the Nobel Prize in

Chemistry, the New York Times had an article saying, " Will Professor

Pauling be allowed to go to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize? " So I

received the passport, which had been turned down only a short time

before.

 

 

 

 

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