Indentureship Indian Heritage Month May 05

Rohee takes PNC/R's Khan to task on 'visa' remarks
By Jaime Hall
MINISTER of Foreign Trade and International Corporation Mr. Clement Rohee is contemplating taking legal action against People's National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) member, Mr. Jerome Khan, for public remarks he made recently, which suggests that the Minister traveled to Mexico illegally.

Mr. Rohee has also decided to withdraw his participation from the Foreign Relations Committee on which Khan is a member, representing the PNC/R, because of the remarks. Yesterday he presented to the Chairperson of the Committee a report on why he has decided to withdraw his participation.

Khan, during the conference on Thursday at Congress Place Sophia, responding to questions from the press pertaining to the non- issuance of travel visa by foreign embassies to two government Ministers- one of them, Mr. Rohee, had said he (Rohee) had to go through "back track"(travel through Venezuela) to attend the Summit of the Americas. The Summit was held in Monterry, Mexico from 12-23 January, 2004.

Mr. Rohee had applied for a visa to travel to the United States a few weeks ago but his application is still under consideration by the office in Washington.

Rohee said the phrase "back track" is popularly used in Guyana to describe the illegal activity of either traveling from Guyana and to certain countries without regular or valid travel documents or aiding and abetting such activity.

He said Mr. Khan used the phrase without qualification and therefore must be taken to have intended to convey that "I engaged in illegal activities in traveling to Mexico".

Khan's statement, he said, is "false, obnoxious, vindictive and defamatory and is an insult not only to me personally but to the People's Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) and the Government of Guyana."

According to a statement from the Government Information News Agency (GINA) yesterday, US Ambassador to Guyana Mr. Roland Bullen said that Mr. Rohee was denied a visa to travel to the US.

He explained that certain categories of visas have to be approved by Washington and Minister Rohee's was one such case.

There have been widespread speculations, fueled by media reports, on why the minister was not granted a visa.

Monday, February 09, 2004