James Byron Bissett
James Byron Bissett is a former Canadian diplomat. He was high commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago and later ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria.[1]
Career
James Bissett joined the Canadian government in 1956. He spent the next 36 years as a public servant in the Departments of Citizenship and Immigration and Foreign Affairs. In 1974 he was appointed head of the Immigration Foreign services. During the early 1970s he served at the Canadian High Commission in London, England. In 1980 he became the assistant undersecretary of state for social affairs in the Department of External Affairs. Two years later he was appointed the Canadian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, where he remained until 1985. He was then seconded to the Department of Employment and Immigration as executive director, to help steer new immigration and refugee legislation through the Parliament of Canada. In 1990 he was then appointed Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania. In the summer of 1992 he was recalled from there and retired from foreign service, to accept a job as the head of the International Organization for Migration in Moscow, helping the Russian government establish a new immigration agency and implementing settlement programs for Russians returning to Russia from other parts of the former Soviet Union.
After the Break-Up of Yugoslavia
A career change a few years before retirement took him out of the foreign service and into a consulting position in Russia. Bissett testified at the Trial of Slobodan Milošević as a defence witness.[2]
Charges that Canada and NATO Partook in War Crimes
In 2004, Bissett claimed that "Canada [has] participated in a series of NATO-sanctioned war crimes against Yugoslavia". He also said that "anti-Serb violence had taken place while an army of 18,000 NATO troops stood by and did nothing to protect the Serbs or their property." [3]
Media
James Bissett appears in two documentary films by Boris Malagurski: Kosovo: Can You Imagine? (2009) and The Weight of Chains (2011).
External links
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Paul-Eugène Laberge |
High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago 1982-1985 |
Succeeded by James Calbert Best |
| Preceded by Terence Charles Bacon |
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Yugoslavia 1990-1992 |
Succeeded by Dennis Snider |
| Preceded by Terence Charles Bacon |
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Albania 1990-1992 |
Succeeded by Rodney Irwin |
| Preceded by Terence Charles Bacon |
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Bulgaria 1990-1992 |
Succeeded by Rodney Irwin |
References
- ↑ http://www.international.gc.ca/department/history-histoire/hplSearch_results-en.asp?frm=person&lan=1&prsnid=375
- ↑ http://iwpr.net/report-news/milosevic-calls-ex-canadian-ambassador
- ↑ In an Interview given during his speech at the University of Alberta, according to the B92 news agency