Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States government has instituted tighter security checks on persons seeking to enter the country and a government minister has been ensnared in the new security procedures.
Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Minister, Clement Rohee, yesterday confirmed that his application for a visa made two weeks ago is still to be approved. Stabroek News has been reliably informed that the application has been referred to Washington DC for approval.
Rohee could not say what was the reason for the referral or the delay in issuing the visa, which had been submitted through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said that he was not sure what was the procedure used to expedite the issue of the visa, but it was not the practice of the government to seek special treatment for its officials.
Neither the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rudy Insanally, who has been out of office for several days because he is incapacitated, nor the Director General of the Ministry, Ambassador Elisabeth Harper could shed any light on the issue.
Rohee, who was foreign minister between 1992 and 2001 when he was switched to his present ministry, has travelled to the US on several occasions and since his appointment as foreign trade minister must have travelled through the US on several occasions on his trips abroad.
In late 2001, the US government banned travel to the US by Guyana government officials to force acceptance of a number of Guyanese criminal deportees that it wanted to send back here. The ban was lifted weeks later after the government was pressured in to agreeing to accept the deportees but not before it gained agreement on the procedures to govern the return of all deportees not in possession of valid travel documents.