U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday it is time to remove travel restrictions on former South African President Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC).
"I really do hope that we can remove these restrictions on the ANC. This is a country with which we now have excellent relations -- South Africa," Rice told a Senate committee.
"It is frankly a rather embarrassing matter that I still have to waive in my own counterparts -- the foreign minister of South Africa, not to mention the great leader, Nelson Mandela," she added.
The ANC was banned by the South African apartheid government in1960, its leaders jailed or forced into exile until the ban on the movement was lifted 30 years later.
Mandela was jailed for 27 years for his leadership in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. He became the first post-apartheid-era president years after his release in 1990.
Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, introduced legislation last week to remove the ANC from any U.S. government databases that labeled the organization and its leaders as "terrorists."
"It is shameful that the United States still treats the ANC this way based solely on its designation as a terrorist organization by the old apartheid South African regime," Berman said in a statement on Friday.
"Amazingly, Nelson Mandela still needs to get a special waiver to enter the United States based on his courageous leadership of the ANC. What an indignity. This legislation will wipe it away," he said.
Source:Xinhua
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