A Zimbabwean human rights lawyer on his way to Dublin via Paris to address a public meeting was stopped by French immigration officials and sent home, despite having a letter of credence issued on behalf of the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
Mr Arnold Tsunga (36) was due to speak about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe at an event in Leopardstown Racecourse last Friday night which was organised to raise funds for the Chimanimani Development Trust, a charitable organisation.
Two Zimbabwean friends of Mr Tsunga's, the opposition MP, Mr Roy Bennett and Mr Monty Hunter, who were visiting Ireland last week, went to Dublin Airport on Thursday night to meet him on arrival from Paris, but he never appeared.
Through a contact, they discovered that Mr Tsunga had been stopped and put on a plane for Johannesburg instead. He then flew on to Harare, capital of Zimbabwe.
Mr Tsunga was travelling to Dublin from Niger via Morocco and Paris. He had been in Niger to present a human rights case against the President of Zimbabwe, Mr Robert Mugabe, at the court established by the African Union, successor of the Organisation for African Unity.
He arrived in Paris on Thursday afternoon and was due to transfer to a flight for Dublin. Mr Hunter said Mr Tsunga was detained for five hours by immigration and police officials who told him he needed an Irish visa and that was why he was being deported to Johannesburg.
Mr Hunter said Mr Tsunga was not allowed access to a lawyer, a telephone, e-mail, or even a more senior immigration official. Since the Irish visit had been arranged hastily there was no time to organise a visa but Mr Hunter had secured a letter of credence from a civil servant at the visa office of the Department of Justice which was addressed to immigration officials in Dublin Airport and which reads as follows: "Re: Mr Arnold Tsunga - date of birth 04/07/66. Dear Sirs: I am directed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the above-named. Mr Tsunga is a human rights lawyer and is due to attend a conference in or around the 21st of May, 2003. He is travelling to Dublin from Niger via Paris. Mr Tsunga, due to time constraints, does not have a visa in his passport but I would appreciate if you could allow him entry into the State to participate in the conference."
According to Mr Hunter, Mr Tsunga produced the document in Paris but to no avail and the French authorities refused to contact the Justice Department in Ireland "even though it had phone numbers".
The French Embassy in Dublin said yesterday it was not in a position to comment.
Associates of Mr Tsunga said it was "quite worrying" that the French government was prepared to let President Mugabe visit their country recently, "but they won't let a human rights lawyer pass through it".
They were also concerned that information about Mr Tsunga's travel plans may have been leaked by a pro-Mugabe source in Dublin.