Last week the Globe and Mail issued a report stating that a number of India’s G20 delegates have been refused visas to come to the upcoming G20 meeting in Toronto, on the grounds that they are complicit in human rights abuses. Apparently;

“Visa requests were turned down because the applicants either worked for India’s internal intelligence agency or for the army in the disputed, heavily militarized region of Kashmir.”

The Globe and Mail goes on to report that some of the reasoning given for the decision was that the above mentioned agency is ‘notoriously violent’ and engages in ‘systemic torture’.

While it is encouraging that human rights abusers and war criminals are to some extent being held responsible for their violations of international law, why is it that only relatively low-ranking security officials are being kept out of Canada? Why not the leaders who create the structures that allow abuses, and then benefit from such crimes?

For example, today Prime Minister Steven Harper was scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We should need no reminder that Israel is an apartheid state, especially after yesterdays events. The ‘Free Gaza Flotilla’, a convoy of six ships attempting to break the Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip and provide humanitarian supplies such as concrete and medicine, was attacked by the Israeli Defence Force. At least nineteen human rights activists were killed when the ships, flying Turkish flags, were attacked in international waters. In response Canada has officially taken a ‘wait and see’ attitude, even though Harper was in a particularly strong position to rebuke Netanyahu for his country’s actions.

Returning to the delegates who will be here for the G20, I seriously doubt that Canada will deny any others entry either, even though every single one of their countries is responsible for human rights abuses as well.

Originally posted at
http://undertheleaf.blogspot.com/2010/05/india-denied-visa-for-g20-canad...