Investigating 'Africa's Guantanamo'
Detainees report being questioned and beaten by US
agents.
By Robert Walker
BBC News, October 2, 2008
go to original
See Article I.6
Promoting Kidnapping and Renditions for Illegal Torture
|
|
"Ethiopia allows torture of
detainees. And that is the modus operandi
in renditions."--Al Amin Kimathi, Kenya's
Muslim Human Rights Forum
Source: BBC
|
Salim Awadh is talking to me from inside a cell somewhere
in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
There are seven other prisoners kept in the same
small, dark room, he starts to tell me.
Then he suddenly stops speaking. I can hear frantic
whispering in the background. Then he says it is safe
to carry on.
"The conditions are really bad: we don't have
enough food, we don't have enough access to medicine.
The cell is wet," he says.
"We sleep on the floor rather than the sodden
mattresses. One of the other prisoners was beaten
so badly he's had his leg broken."
Salim is able to speak to me because he has bribed
a guard and got access to a mobile phone.
For weeks I have been trying to find out information
about him and other detainees in what has been called
"Africa's Guantanamo". It is a story the
governments involved do not want to talk about: The
first mass rendition of terrorist suspects in Africa.
In January 2007, Ethiopian troops had taken control
of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, ousting the Union
of Islamic Courts (UIC), an Islamist movement which
had controlled much of southern Somalia for the previous
six months.
Members of the UIC, militia fighters and civilians
were all fleeing towards Kenya. Among them were Salim
Awadh, a Kenyan, and his Tanzanian wife, Fatma Chande.
Both of them were arrested as they crossed the border.
"I was kept in a cell with other women. Then
the Kenyan anti-terrorist police questioned me - they
asked me why we went to Somalia," Fatma says.
I meet Fatma in her small two-room house in Moshi,
northern Tanzania. She is quietly spoken and her voice
falters as she explains what happened next.
"I told them my husband got a job repairing
mobile phones in Somalia. But they tried to force
me to admit that my husband was a terrorist. They
said I had to tell them the truth or they would strangle
me."
Border worries
Kenya's government - and its Western allies - had
long seen Somalia as a haven for terrorists linked
to al-Qaeda, including those responsible for 1998
bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
With the UIC in retreat, they feared that extremists
might try to slip across the border.
In the first weeks of early 2007, news began to filter
out that several hundred people - including children
- had been arrested trying to enter Kenya.
Al Amin Kimathi, the head of Kenya's Muslim Human
Rights Forum, sent volunteers to police stations across
the capital, Nairobi, trying to collect information.
"Some very frustrated senior police officers
told us point blank: it's not our operation, go and
ask the Americans, just call the American embassy.
We even saw the Americans bring in detainees and take
them out of certain police stations in Nairobi,"
he said.
Before Kenyan lawyers' applications for their release
could be considered, the authorities took an extraordinary
step.
"It was a Saturday, the police called us in
the middle of the night. We were taken to the airport.
My husband was made to kneel down on the tarmac,"
says Fatima.
"We had our hands tied behind our backs with
plastic cuffs. There were men, women, children. We
were blindfolded. People were crying. The police were
telling them to keep quiet."
Two hours later, Fatma and Salim found themselves
on the tarmac of Mogadishu airport.
The Kenyan government sent two other planeloads of
prisoners to Somalia. According to the passenger manifests
at least 85 prisoners were on board. Most of them
were soon picked from Somali prison cells and taken
to Ethiopia.
"A week after we arrived we were interrogated
by whites - Americans, British, I was interrogated
for weeks," Salim says.
"They had a file which was said to implicate
me in the Kenyan bombings. So I was taken away and
was placed in isolation for two months - both my hands
and legs were shackled.
"The interrogations went on for five months.
Always the same questions about the Nairobi bombings."
Threats
Former detainees have also told the BBC they were
questioned by US agents. One said he was beaten by
Americans.
Two others said they were threatened and told that
if they did not co-operate they could face ill treatment
at the hands of Ethiopian guards.
All said they believed it was the Americans and not
the Ethiopians controlling their detention and interrogation.
Human rights groups in the region say this was a
new form of extraordinary rendition.
The US did not play an overt role in the transportation
or detention of suspects as it has in the rendition
of other suspected terrorists, but it nevertheless
controlled their interrogation and treatment.
Al Amin Kimathi believes Ethiopia was seen as the
ideal destination.
"It was the most natural place to take anyone
looking for a site to go and torture and to extract
confessions. Ethiopia allows torture of detainees.
And that is the modus operandi in renditions."
In April last year, Ethiopia acknowledged that it
was holding 41 people from 17 countries, describing
them as "suspected terrorists".
Most of the detainees were released after a few months,
among them Fatma Chande, apparently as their interrogations
were completed or under pressure from their home governments.
The Ethiopian government acknowledges up to 10 foreign
suspects are still being detained.
These are people who were engaged in causing harm
to the national interest... These are not innocent
people
Ethiopian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Tekede
Alemu
"I'm not sure whether they have appeared before
a court. The investigation continues," Minister
of State for Foreign Affairs Tekede Alemu told the
BBC.
"These are people who were engaged in causing
harm to the national interest, the security interest...
These are not innocent people."
The minister rejected claims the detainees have been
mistreated. He also denied US agents had been allowed
to control the interrogations of foreign prisoners.
More than a year and a half after the renditions,
the US government still refuses to respond to questions
on the alleged US role.
"I have no knowledge of it nor as official policy
can I comment on such matters," US Assistant
Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer told
the BBC.
The Kenyan police say no Kenyans were amongs those
flown by the Kenyan government to Somalia.
Meanwhile Fatma is still waiting anxiously for news
of her husband.
After Salim got access to a mobile phone, he was
able to speak to her from his cell for the first time
in more than a year.
Now the phone has stopped working, Salim has disappeared
once again.
News
Archive:
Complete investigation
of U.S. attorney firings is needed
All Quiet on the Detainee Front
A Chinese Muslim
in Gitmo Legal Limbo
Don't forget
Torture Migration Day
Air Force Instructor
Details Harsh Interrogations
Top Officials
Knew in 2002 of Harsh Interrogations
Anti-war veterans
unfurl 'Arrest Bush/Cheney' banner at National Archives
Fein: Impeachable
offenses?
On Anniversary
of Civilian Shootings by Blackwater in Iraq:
Amnesty International Calls on U.S. Government to
Hold Military Contractors Accountable
DOJ Says Cheney's
Testimony in Valerie Plame Leak Classified
Attorney for Gitmo
inmate works to drum up support
CIA snatch trial
goes ahead: But intelligence officers to be heard
behind closed doors
Cheney Linked Hussein
to Al-Qaeda, Ex-GOP House Leader Says in Book
Mr. Bush's unitary
executive doctrine
Did White House ties
power pipeline approval?
Bush Secret
Order To Send Special Forces Into Pakistan
Suspected US
missile kills 12 in Pakistan
McDermott joins call to oust Bush
Kucinich Ramps Up
Impeachment Efforts Against Bush
Widespread
cell phone location snooping by NSA?
Lawsuit to Ask
That Cheney's Papers Be Made Public
The next step is to get Gitmo out of him
Hunger Strikers
Should Not Be Force Fed
Cheney colleague
admits bribery in Halliburton oil deals
US seeks delay in
Guantanamo detainees habeas appeal
Report Faults Handling
of Wiretap Notes
Katrina 3 Years Later
Suicide on the
Brink of Release
Executive privilege showdown looms for Congress, White
House
A Wake-Up Call
from Dennis Kucinich
Conyers questions Iraq
‘forgery’
89 Afghan civilians
die in 'tragic' US air strike
CIA More Fully Denies
Deception About Iraq
FISA amendment forces
appeals court to punt on wiretap case
Guantanamo Briton wins
high court battle
White
House Signing Statements “Unsubstantiated,”
Report Says
Anti-Regulation
Aide to Cheney Is Up for Energy Post
Bush guts a legal
system he had sworn to defend
Nancy Pelosi gets
pilloried at AJU
How Tenet 'betrayed' the
CIA on Iraq
Mukasey Won’t
Charge Former Justice Officials Over Hiring Practices
Pelosi Takes Heat from
Right and Left
RIGHTS-US: Hamdan’s
Future Remains Unclear
Verdict is in
on Bush-style justice: Guilty
Afghan Civilian
Casualties Mount: UN
New Book Says Bush Committed
Impeachable Offense
Media Blackout On
Cheney Iran False Flag Story
Source: British Territory
Used for US Terrorism Interrogation
Miers and Bolten
ordered to answer congressional subpoenas
House panel recommends
citing Rove for contempt
Kucinich gets his Day
The People, the Press
and the Case for Impeachment
U.S. Military
Says Soldiers Fired on Civilians
Impeachment supporters
get dais in spotlight
Rep. Kucinich Gets
His Day to Air Impeachment Article
Letterman: 'Bush's
Administration is Clearly Guilty of War Crimes?'
Exposing Bush's
historic abuse of power
Gitmo and Habeas
Corpus
Rebuff Pelosi Passes
the Buck; Gore Let Off the Hook at Netroots Nation
Conyers Plans Bush
Impeachment Substitute
Ashcroft Defends
Waterboarding before House Panel
Turley: Impeachment
hearings must consider evidence Bush committed crimes<
Congressional Panel
To Review Kucinich’s Call to Impeach Bush
