The Slovak Foreign Ministry has demanded an explanation from the Ethiopian authorities as to why they detained Slovak Ambassador Milan Dubček, the ministry reported on its website.
Dubček was detained on Saturday, November 5, but was only reported missing when he did not come to work the following Monday (November 7). The local authorities neither informed Slovakia nor offered any explanation for why Dubček had been arrested. He was released later on November 7.
The Slovak Foreign Ministry described the incident as a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations agreed in 1961, which states that a diplomat serving in a foreign country cannot be detained and that the state where he is should make every effort to release him, the Sme daily wrote.
Foreign Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda has also sent a letter to his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski, in which he thanked the Polish Embassy in Ethiopia for the help it provided in Dubcek’s release. He also praised the help of the EU Delegation in Ethiopia, sending a message of thanks to the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton. In the letter Dzurinda described the actions of the Ethiopian authorities as unacceptable and asked Ashton to condemn them, the ministry reported.
Source: Foreign Ministry website, Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
