Bob Brown banned from Rwanda - ABC News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-11/bob-brown-banned-from-rwanda/4365758 Bob Brown banned from Rwanda Updated 5 hours 31 minutes ago PHOTO: Mr Brown had planned to visit the country to meet with the Rwandan Greens party. (Issei Kato: Reuters) MAP: Rwanda Former Greens leader Bob Brown has had a visa to visit Rwanda cancelled. Mr Brown had planned to visit the country to meet with the Rwandan Greens party, but he says his visa has been cancelled for "inconsistencies", without explanation. "It's very clearly a political decision, [by] I would think the president himself, to deny me a visa because he is very restrictive on there being alternative political voices," he said. Mr Brown, says the decision to ban him from the country is a "mistake", which could have wider implications. He had been due to speak at a congress of the Rwandan Greens Party, and says the decision is politically motivated because he and his partner were granted their visas several weeks ago, but only his was cancelled. The former federal senator says the decision is inconsistent with the democratic image president Paul Kagame has fostered for Rwanda. "The decision by the Kagame government to ban me from going to Rwanda is a mistake and it sends a message to the rest of the world that this country is not as open, as free and as democratic as President Kagame has presented it in recent years," he said. Topics: government-and-politics, world-politics, greens, australian-greens,brown-bob, rwanda, australia First posted Sun Nov 11, 2012 8:07pm AEDT