Mandela finally dropped from
Agence
July 1, 2008
The
In time for the
anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner's 90th birthday on July 18,
President George W. Bush signed a bill Tuesday which effectively ended a system
in which Mandela had to get special certification from the
Now Mandela and
members of the ANC will be able to simply apply for visas to travel to the
"Today the
"The label of
'terrorist' will no longer be affixed to associates of the ANC -- among them
one of the world's great heroes, Nelson Mandela. Our country stands with those
who struggled to bring the reprehensible system of apartheid to an end,"
Berman said.
The measure
authorizes US officials "to determine that provisions in the Immigration
and Nationality Act that render aliens inadmissible due to terrorist or
criminal activities would not apply with respect to activities undertaken in
association with the African National Congress in opposition to apartheid rule
in
Mandela won the Nobel
peace price in 1993, and was president of
The measure ensures
"that there aren't any extra hoops for either a distinguished individual,
like former President Mandela, or other members of the African National
Congress to get a US visa," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.
He explained that the
original purpose of the law, introduced during the 1980s while Ronald Reagan
was president, was to fight terrorism. "So we're pleased that we could
make this correction to what is otherwise a good and important piece of
legislation," he said.
In April, US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged a Senate committee to remove the
restrictions on the ANC party, calling it a "rather embarrassing matter
that I still have to waive in my own counterpart, the foreign minister of
When a similar bill
passed the House of Representatives last month, Barbara Lee, a California
Democrat who co-sponsored it, said she was "especially pleased we are
taking this important step to finally right this inexcusable wrong."
Lee and others said
the legislation was anachronistic and wrongfully labeled heroes and freedom
fighters as terrorists.
Lee recalled that
under the original legislation ANC officials could travel to United Nations
headquarters in
The