'Rice should’ve walked the walk’
Sajeda Momin
Friday, March 31, 2006 23:14 IST
LONDON: What was supposed to have been a personal triumph for British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw turned into a huge diplomatic fiasco and a high-profile nightmare for the Foreign Office. Condoleezza Rice, touted to be the most powerful woman in the world, was forced to sneak into a school in Blackburn through a back entrance to avoid protests from schoolchildren and their parents.
The US Secretary of State’s embarrassment was heightened as it came just after the symbolic highlight of the reciprocal visit to Straw’s home tome, the visit to a local mosque was cancelled at the last minute amid fears of protests from both Muslims and the Stop the War Coalition.
Protestors, mostly second and third generation Muslims from Gujarat and Maharashtra, chanted “Condi go home” outside the 1,200-pupil Pleckgate High School in Blackburn in Northwest England, as they waited for Rice to arrive.
Security personnel instead guided the US Secretary of State and the Foreign Secretary to a back entrance and escorted them in without being seen by the protestors. “If she can talk the talk then she should have walked the walk,” said 16-year-old student Asma Patel outside the school, disappointed that Rice used a back door.
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