Walaalkeen Makhtal intuu ku dambeeye?

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Bashiir Makhtal xarigiisa aan xaqa ahayn intuu ku dambeeye? Warkii warbaahinta ka hartay.

 

Well, this thread is dedicated to our brother Makhtal and whatever we can to free this brother of ours, who is languishing in a Xabashi torture champer.

 

Bring any new war aad maqashid to this thread. The least we can do is doing whatsoever we can campaign to free him, as little as it may seem to some.

 

Who is Bashiir Makhtal?

 

 

Bashiir Makhtal is a Canadian citizen originally from [soomaali Galbeed], a territory occupied by Itoobiya since the European division of the African continent in 1886.

 

Bashiir Makhtal is in his late thirties and is married with no children.

 

Makhtal’s family was among many [soomaali Galbeed] families that fled [soomaali Galbeed] to Soomaaliya due to renewed hostilities between the [soomaali Galbeed] Soomaalis and the Haile Sellasie regime in the nineteen sixties and the seventies.

 

Makhtal took his early education in Soomaaliya. He came to Canada in 1991. He studied computer science at the DeVry Institute of Technology in Toronto.

 

He later went to State of Texas to complete his bachelors of Science degree.

 

Makhtal lived in Toronto’s Riverdale neighborhood all his time in Ontario, Canada. He became a Canadian citizen in 1994. He worked as senior programmer at two of Canada’s biggest banks i.e. Bank of Montreal and CIBC.

 

From 2002 up until December 2006 Makhtal did business outside Canada, in countries such as Kenya, Jabuuti, Soomaailya, Eritrea and United Arab Emirates.

 

On December 31st, Kenyan authorities detained Makhtal while he was attempting to cross the Kenya border from Soomaaliya. Kenya illegally rendered him to Itoobiya via Soomaaliya on January 20th.

---------------

 

Ethiopia accused of torture

 

Former Toronto man being forced to say he's a member of a rebel group, family members charge

 

May 04, 2007 - A former Toronto resident is being tortured in Ethiopia, his relatives say.

 

Bashir Makhtal has been detained in Ethiopia since late January.

 

He is among 41 prisoners from 17 countries that Ethiopia has admitted holding; 29 were ordered released by a military court.

 

Makhtal was among the dozen who were to remain in custody.

 

Makhtal's cousin, Said Maktal, told the Toronto Star that a reliable source in Ethiopia telephoned him Wednesday and said Bashir Makhtal "

is being tortured

and they're forcing him to speak on the television regarding the [soomaali Galbeed] National Liberation Front.

 

"They want him to say he is a member of that group and he's refusing because he's not."

 

Makhtal's grandfather was a founder of the nationalist group that is fighting for independence for ethnic Somalis in eastern Ethiopia.

 

Bashir Makhtal's family insists he is not a member.

 

Yesterday, Said Maktal said, a second source reported the torture allegation.

 

Further troubling are additional reports from the Ethiopian source that Bashir's brother Hassan and two of his children who still live in Jigjiga

, Ethiopia, were also rounded up and tortured.

 

The reports of torture come on the heels of a written assurance from an official in Ottawa that the Ethiopian government has promised Ottawa that Makhtal, a Canadian citizen, "has been and will continue to be properly treated," his cousin said.

 

"If the reports are true, they have lied to our government," Maktal said.

 

"It's against humanity to torture someone in their custody and to force somebody to lie on national television."

 

Canada's Foreign Affairs Department didn't comment on the reports yesterday.

 

It previously confirmed Makhtal is in an Ethiopian prison and that it is lobbying for regular consular access.

 

Lawyer Lorne Waldman, hired by the family to help free Makhtal, urged Ottawa once again to demand consular access.

 

"It's extremely urgent they (Canadian officials) get access to Bashir as soon as possible so they can determine for themselves what his health is in light of these serious allegations," Waldman said yesterday.

 

"It doesn't make sense they haven't had consular access. He's a Canadian citizen and should be granted consular access under the Vienna Convention."

 

The reports of Makhtal's torture follow a raid last week on an oil refinery in eastern Ethiopia by gunmen.

 

They killed 74 Ethiopian and Chinese workers and took seven Chinese hostage; they were freed five days later.

 

The [soomaali Galbeed] National Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

Makhtal left Ethiopia when he was 11 to attend school in Somalia.

 

He came to Canada as a refugee, before moving to Kenya in 2002.

 

There he married and started a business selling used clothing.

 

Makhtal was arrested in late December on the Kenya-Somalia border, held in Kenya and then deported to Somalia and on to Ethiopia in late January.

 

Said Maktal is worried that his cousin, who lived in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood for almost 11 years, will break under the torture.

 

"Eventually, if it is his life that is at stake, he will talk and say whatever they want him to say," he said.

 

"The international community should know what Ethiopia is doing ... Someone has to stand up and say `enough.' I'm hoping our government will do something about this. I want the international community to know they're not keeping their promise."

 

The Toronto Star

Baliis contribute your name on the petition.

 

For both the lastest and old news, keep your eye on here.

[nuune]

Waa ayaan darro soo wajahdey Soomaali kastoo sanku neefla ah, waxaaba iiga sii daran, maxey Soomaali Community ku sheegyada Canada ay u sameen waayeen mudaaharaadyo wax ku ool leh, dhaqdhaqaaq baa loo baahanyahey, Dawlada Canada ayaa masuul iyo xil ka saaranyahay sida ay u so deyn laheed walaalkeen Makhtal, waana xil saaran Soomaali kastoo Canada joogo si ay ugu sheegaan dowlada Canada arrintan naxdinta leh not just warbaahinta Canada.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Nuune, dad ayaa u dabasocdo liiskaas walaalkeen and Eebbe ha idmee wuu kasoo bixi doonaa godkaas ay Xabashadda giliyeen, una horseeday Soomaali waxmagarado ku sheeg ah.

 

Teeda kale dowladaan Kanada xiligaan kuwa macangag ah aan u rooneen soogalootiga ayaa maamulo, oo dan ay ka leeyihiin ayaa iska yar. Saas ee tahay dadaalo ayaa socdo, oo garyaqaan caan ah ayaa u doodo.

 

Sababta ay Xabasha ku heystaan waxee tahay awoowgiis ayaa jabhadii ugu horeysay ka aasaasaay Soomaali Galbeed, waana markee 1964 markee ahayd, waana dhaqdhaqaaqii ugu horeeyo Soomaaliya oo dal jirto oo ciidan leh dagaal la galay Xabashada.

 

Wargeysa New York Times ayaa ka qoray baragaraafkaan hoos ku qoran ka qaray sanadka markuu ahaa 1964.

 

Somali Guerrilla Chief Says He'll Ignore a Truce

 

The New York Times

March 28,

1964

 

MOGADISCIO, Somalia March 27 -- The key man in the border conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia is

Muktal Dahir

, leader of 12,000 Somali guerrillas who have been waging a war against the Ethiopian Army.

 

New York Times

Garaad Makhtal Daahir waa Bashiir awoowgiis.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Help Canadians detained abroad

 

Nov 06, 2007 - In a nation like Canada with so many communities from every corner of the world, it is not unusual for some of our citizens to find themselves caught in the global terror-fighting dragnet.

 

Some Canadians, such as myself, hail from the very places that today are theatres of operations in the war on terror: Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Lebanon. Others, who were born here, may share a common name or culture with those perceived to be targets of the global-war-on-terror machinery.

 

Yet when a Canadian citizen is detained by any authority – be it one with a dubious human rights record such as Ethiopia or one with a superficially stellar one like the United States under the current administration – it is disheartening not to have any public debate on the treatment of our citizens. All we hear are allegations and innuendo from anonymous Canadian security intelligence officers.

 

There appears to be no coherent public policy on how to deal with those who detain or render to a third country our citizens under the pretext of the war on terror. Worse, there has been no visible concerted Canadian effort to demand timely consular access to Canadians detained abroad.

 

If there were such a policy and concerted Canadian effort, Maher Arar probably would not have been deported to Syria by the U.S. in 2002; Huseyin Celil would not have been rendered by Uzbekistan in 2006 and put on a sham terror trial in China while our government pontificated through the press; and Bashir Makhtal would not have been held in an Ethiopian prison since January with no Canadian consular access, let alone help from our "new" government.

 

Contrary to our laws and public pronouncements from the Department of Foreign Affairs, it appears there is a presumption of guilt until our detained citizens prove their innocence. How else can any sane person explain the continued detention of Makhtal, who is not even listed in the official records of the very prison where he has been held for the past 10 months?

 

If Addis Ababa thinks Makhtal is guilty of something, why is Canada not able to prevail on Ethiopia, a nation that receives our development aid, to go ahead and prosecute him rather that allowing the Ethiopian authorities to keep him in indefinite detention?

 

Blaming the plight of Arar on the former Liberal government while doing very little to help detained Canadians like Makhtal and Celil is neither acceptable nor is it an option. Canada needs to come up with a coherent policy that calls those who render our citizens to account and puts all of our resources at the service of the detained. And no matter which policy we want to adopt as a nation when it comes to the detention and treatment of our citizens abroad, it is paramount that we have public discussions beforehand.

 

Rather than allowing our intelligence community to determine the discourse for the plight of rendered and detained Canadians through allegations possibly supplied by the very governments that are holding our citizens, it is necessary to establish a policy that upholds the rights of all Canadians.

 

The media should take an active role in educating the general public about the difficulty our citizens can find themselves in abroad or even inside Canada in the context of the war on terror. The public should not feel indifferent to the predicament of our fellow citizens.

 

In previous years it was William Sampson and Arar who found themselves detained abroad. Today it is Celil and Makhtal, and perhaps others whose names might not yet have graced the front pages of our newspapers, who are in detention and receiving very little help from the Canadian government.

 

Toronto Star

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Read it on the paper today; a column by a well-regarded columnist.

------------

 

Why is [Canadian] PM forgetting Makhtal?

 

Thomas Walkom

Toronto Star

Nov. 29

 

That Stephen Harper's government takes a selective approach to human rights is well established. The Prime Minister has been vocal in support of Huseyin Celil, a Chinese-Canadian imprisoned in China after a questionable trial that convicted him of terrorism. Yet he remains strangely quiet when other governments with dodgy human rights records mistreat Canadians.

 

I won't even bother getting into the case of former child soldier Omar Khadr whose forthcoming trial at Guantanamo Bay prison camp promises to be such a farce that even his American military lawyer calls it a kangaroo court. Here, Harper's silence is at least in line with a long, if dishonourable, Canadian tradition of toadying.

 

But his failure to help Bashir Makhtal, a Canadian imprisoned without charge in Ethiopia is, on the face of it, baffling. As these things go, this one should be easy.

 

Makhtal, who fled Ethiopia's war-torn [soomaali Galbeed] region as a child, was on business in Somalia when the Ethiopian army invaded last year.

 

Like many ethnic Somalis from the [soomaali Galbeed], he sympathizes with the aims of the secessionist [soomaali Galbeed] National Liberation Front. Indeed his grandfather was one of its founders. While Canada does not consider the ONLF terrorist, Ethiopia does. So for him, the U.S.-backed invasion was not good news.

 

Taking Ottawa's advice, he fled to neighbouring Kenya. But Kenyan authorities seized his Canadian passport and handed him over to Ethiopia, which plunked him in jail without charge.

 

There, he's been subjected to standard police state procedures – solitary confinement, threats of torture, a coerced televised confession. For months, the Ethiopians refused to admit they held Makhtal. They still won't let Canadian officials see him.

 

By all normal standards of international law, Makhtal's human rights are being abused (which is why his Canadian lawyers are trying to sue Ethiopia). But an uncensored letter he managed to get home to his family last June does not mention physical torture. Indeed, the fact that he was able to get such a letter out suggests the Ethiopians do not consider him much of a terrorist threat.

 

That letter shows Makhtal in a feisty mood – critical of his treatment, fearful, yet confident (some might say naively confident) that Canada will come to his rescue. He writes that his jailers, while cheered by the example of George W. Bush ("America puts this type of people in Guantanamo," he quotes the prison head as saying), are still worried about criticism from western donors.

 

Ethiopia is the second largest recipient of Canadian official development assistance – $108 million in 2005.

 

Makhtal writes that the small amount of Canadian attention he has received so far has dissuaded the Ethiopians from doing worse to him. And he pleads with Ottawa to do everything in its power to ensure that, at the very least, he is brought before a civilian court.

 

"My only hope and possible chance is the Canadian government," he writes.

 

How unfortunate then, that it is this government he depends on. Former foreign minister Peter MacKay raised Makhtal's case once with the Ethiopians. The current minister, Maxime Bernier, has done nothing.

 

When Makhtal's cousin Said Maktal wrote Harper to plead for help, he was answered with a form letter.

 

"The Prime Minister appreciates your interest and has asked me to thank you," reads the reply from Harper's correspondence unit. "Thank you for taking the time to write."

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Once more Harper regime ignores another Canadian's plight. Once again, the right-wing prime minister's true feathers are more apparent, satisfying his redneck base that votes for him.

_______________

 

Canadian convicted of terror charges in Ethiopia

 

 

Calling the court's decision a 'travesty of justice,' Toronto man's lawyer urges Ottawa to intervene

 

A Canadian citizen who has been in jail in Ethiopia for 2 1/2 years has been convicted of being part of a separatist terrorist organization there.

 

Bashir Makhtal, who lived in Toronto until June 2002, was devastated when the judge announced the verdict, according to relatives here. Makhtal has maintained his innocence throughout the years he has been held captive.

 

Relatives here said he told kin in Addis Ababa that his only hope now is the Canadian government. They said he did not believe he would be treated fairly by Ethiopian officials.

 

Makhtal also denied in court any affiliation with the separatist movement known as the ****** National Liberation Front, which is fighting for the Somali-speaking population of Ethiopia's disputed, oil-rich ****** region. The group is considered a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government.

 

Makhtal is scheduled to be sentenced next week, but his Toronto human rights lawyer, Lorne Waldman, called yesterday's decision "a travesty of justice."

 

Makhtal didn't get a fair trial, Waldman said, adding the Ethiopian justice system is nothing more than a "kangaroo court."

 

The only hope for Bashir is "a very forceful intervention by the Canadian government on his behalf, demanding he be repatriated back to Canada," Waldman said.

 

He said it's urgent that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon get directly involved. Makhtal's family members here and the Canadian-Somali community are also urging Harper to get involved.

 

Until now, Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, and Transport Minister John Baird have worked on the case. Baird issued a statement saying he was "disappointed" with the verdict, adding everything is being done to provide Makhtal with the full support and assistance of the government.

 

The former CIBC employee left Canada to work with a fellow Canadian in a used-clothing business in Djibouti. He was arrested in 2006 as he was trying to cross the border between Kenya and Somalia after fleeing violence in Mogadishu.

 

He was taken to Nairobi, where he was supposed to appear in court. But before his case could be heard, he was spirited away in January 2007 to Addis Ababa, where he has been held since. It is believed that Ethiopian officials were interested in him because he is the grandson of one of the founders of the ****** National Liberation Front.

 

The Star

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Bashir Makhtal's ordeal

 

Stories of Canadians seized overseas, detained and thrown into squalid jails have become sadly commonplace in recent years. But the latest, of Bashir Makhtal, is especially alarming, because the former Toronto man faces a potential death sentence after an Ethiopian court declared him guilty of having links with a separatist and terrorist organization. His sentence will be handed down tomorrow.

 

Makhtal's real crime appears to be having a grandfather who founded the ****** National Liberation Front, which Ethiopia has labelled a terrorist group – and to which Makhtal says he has never belonged. An ethnic Somali from Ethiopia's embattled eastern ****** region, young Bashir was sent to Somalia for safety at the age of seven. But a flaring civil war forced him to flee to Canada in 1991.

 

After 10 years in Canada, Makhtal returned to Africa to open a trading business, apparently to support impoverished relatives. In December of 2006, he was arrested by Kenyan authorities while re-entering the country from a business trip to Somalia, which had enjoyed a period of relative calm until it was attacked by Ethiopian troops fighting to dislodge an Islamic government. Caught in a sweep of terrorism suspects, he was stripped of his Canadian passport and deported, under protest, to Ethiopia.

 

Since then, Makhtal has been subjected to solitary confinement, interrogated in a language he doesn't speak, and hauled before a military tribunal. Canadian officials were denied access to him for 16 months. But after Transport Minister John Baird took an interest in his plight last year – following pleas from Somali constituents –Makhtal's conditions improved and his case was moved to a civilian court.

 

However, human rights groups say the case against Makhtal is seriously flawed. In protest, his Canadian lawyer filed a suit to limit Ottawa's non-humanitarian aid to Ethiopia.

 

Although Baird continues to support Makhtal, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have been silent. That sends a mixed message to Ethiopia. With tomorrow's deadline looming, they should do everything possible to urge that Makhtal not receive a death sentence. Then, they should find a way that he can be repatriated. It's time his ordeal was ended.

 

Editorial

[General Duke]

Poor fellow hope he gets out. The Canadian government should do more to help the man.