Sinn Fein member denied visa

By Frank Enright

SYDNEY -- County Tyrone councillor and Sinn Fein member Barry McElduff was denied a visa to visit Sydney and thus prevented, amongst other things, from addressing the International Green Left Conference held here March 31-April 4. McElduff was to have spoken on the peace initiatives and negotiations in the north of Ireland.

A statement was read to the conference from the organisers expressing their “condemnation of the Australian government's failure to issue a visa to ... McElduff. The Australian people have nothing to fear from what Sinn Fein councillor McElduff has to say. This attack on free speech has been made for the political reason of appeasing the British government and is an affront to democracy. Such censorship aids only the forces of ignorance.”

Immigration Department spokespeople refused to discuss the issue with Green Left Weekly. However, McElduff says that Australian embassy staff in Dublin had related his visa request to Sinn Fein's failure to commit itself to the Downing Street declaration.

Participants at the conference were also informed that the Bougainville Interim Government's foreign minister, Bernard Tunim, was likewise denied a visa to attend and participate in the conference. Tunim had spoken out against the Australian-sponsored war on Bougainville at a UN human rights commission hearing in Geneva in March.

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