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(Prague) The Czech foreign minister threatened Sunday to ask European Union countries to introduce visas for Canadian nationals, unless Ottawa cancels visa requirements for Czechs.

"Either Canada will abolish visa requirements for the citizens of the Czech Republic or we will want all the EU to introduce visa requirements for (the citizens of) Canada," Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda told Czech television Sunday.

"We have started this mechanism in May already," Svoboda said. "I hope that Canada will react and abolish the visa requirements to avoid this," he said.

The Czech Republic, an EU member, lifted visa requirements for Canadian visitors in May 2004.

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[ 16 October 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

http://tinyurl.com/7pfwf

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These are but a few amongst a host of maladies that modern medicine and education could cure not in a heart-beat but in a generation. For those few lucky enough to have escaped these conditions to Canada and the UK, there is hope. The Canadian government is well aware of this. Thus the visa. Is the visa a cop-out? Yes. Are the Czechs, particulary Christian Democrat Cyril Svoboda, wishing away that generation? Yes. This is a quiet genocide. As a footnote, the other country that requires a visa for all Czech vistors and has even more stringent requirements is the USA. Since the 90's, Americans haven't needed a visa to vist the Czech Repubic. We don't hear Svoboda complaining about this injustice.

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edited to add: umm, unless there's something in Schengen or something that requires them to ensure that foreign countries treat all EU members equally in terms of Visa requirements. I doubt this is the case.

[ 17 October 2005: Message edited by: Mandos ]