The diplomat who represents Eritrea in Canada insisted Monday his office was not extorting money from expatriates but merely providing “information” to those who want to donate to the African regime.
“I am not violating the law,” Semere Ghebremariam O. Micael, the Eritrean consul, told the National Post in an interview, his first since the Canadian government began probing the activities of his office in Toronto.
The dispute revolves around Eritrea’s efforts to impose a 2% “diaspora tax” and “national defence” fee on Eritreans living abroad — a practice critics call extortion and that has been denounced by the United Nations.The consulate headed by Mr. Micael, Eritrea’s only accredited diplomat in Canada, is under investigation over its alleged role in financing the repressive regime and its military in violation of international sanctions.
Although Ottawa warned Eritrea in a diplomatic note last September to stop its “tax solicitation and tax collection activities,” documents and interviews indicate the consulate has continued as recently as two weeks ago.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is weighing how to respond to the apparent defiance, and the TD Bank, which is being used to wire the money to Eritrea’s central bank, said Monday it was investigating.
I think it is our duty to give an information
“TD is committed to complying with all applicable laws and we are currently investigating claims,” a TD spokeswoman said, adding the bank had “rigorous controls to ensure that we comply with Canadian economic sanctions regulations.”
With no measurable economy, Eritrea, one of the world’s least developed and most repressive states, is dependent on money collected from the many Eritreans who have left the country for the West, including thousands in Canada.
Asked about forms the consulate had sent to Eritrean-Canadians in November and January, demanding 2% of their wages and a $300 “donation for national defence against Ethiopian invasion,” he said that was “information,” not solicitation.Mr. Micael said the 2% tax was Eritrean law. But he said the consulate in Toronto was no longer collecting the levy or the defence fee. He said those who pay do so voluntarily. “We don’t force them at all,” the consul said.
“Now look, we can give information, you know. We are not collecting it, but for those they are asking information for me, I am answering, you know. I am trying to give you an information, for those who ask the information I think it is our duty to give an information,” he said.
The fundraising scheme would be illegal because the UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on the Eritrean military due to its destabilizing influence in the Horn of Africa, where it has supplied weapons, money and training to a variety of armed groups such as the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab.
In addition, the RCMP and UN have reported that those who refused to pay have been subjected to threats, intimidation and coercion. Eritrean-Canadian refugees also complain they should not have to pay taxes to a regime they fled.
Eritrea promised in writing to stop last September, after Canada threatened not to renew Mr. Micael’s diplomatic accreditation. But documents suggest the consulate has been instructing expatriates to transfer the payments from the TD Bank, through Germany’s Deutshe Zentral Consossenshaft Bank to the Housing and Commerce Bank of Eritrea.
The Eritrean-Canadian Human Rights Group provided the documents to the Post as well as to Foreign Affairs, which was already conducting its own investigation into the consulate together with the RCMP.
Mr. Micael said he had an “understanding with the Canadian government, so there is nothing wrong.” He said he had spoken to Foreign Affairs about the dispute since the issue arose last week. “I answered the questions they asked me,” he said.
“We are not insisting to create conflict. We are trying to rebuild, you know, our relations. And things are going on. The Canadian companies are investing there. This is a minor thing what you are asking me.”
National Post
8:57 AM
Admin.
