Dzurinda: Ethiopia apologises for arrest of Slovak ambassador

Slovak Ambassador to Ethiopia Milan Dubček is set to return to the Slovak Embassy in Addis Ababa in a few days after being recalled to Slovakia by Foreign Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda following a diplomatic spat over the former’s arrest on November 5, the TASR newswire reported. Dubček was given no explanation at the time for why he had been arrested and subsequently held incommunicado for two days by Ethiopian authorities.

Slovak Ambassador to Ethiopia Milan Dubček is set to return to the Slovak Embassy in Addis Ababa in a few days after being recalled to Slovakia by Foreign Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda following a diplomatic spat over the former’s arrest on November 5, the TASR newswire reported. Dubček was given no explanation at the time for why he had been arrested and subsequently held incommunicado for two days by Ethiopian authorities.

The EU delegation in Addis Ababa received an apology from the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry on November 24 in which it explained what had happened and promised that a similar event would not reoccur. "We (now) view the explanation and apology as sufficient," Dzurinda said at a press conference.

An earlier response by Ethiopian officials was rejected by Dzurinda. In their latest apology the Ethiopians stated that the problem was that Dubček (who is the son of Alexander Dubček, the Czechoslovak communist leader during the Prague Spring) had been out for a walk in the city without his identity papers, meaning that Ethiopian police officers weren't able to identify him, said Dzurinda. "Ethiopia has guaranteed that it will remove the flaws in its system and ensure ... that similar misunderstandings aren't repeated," added Dzurinda.

Source: TASR

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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