Toronto man sent back to Somalia in chains

[Jabhad]

Deported from Kenya; accused of links to Ethiopian separatist group

 

January 22, 2007

Debra Black

Staff Reporter

 

 

Worried family of a Canadian – deported from Kenya to Somalia because he was suspected of being a member of an Ethiopian separatist group sympathetic to Somalia's Islamist movement – are asking Ottawa to intervene as quickly as possible to secure his release.

 

Bashir Makhtal, who lived in Toronto, was first arrested in early January in a town bordering Somalia on suspicion of financing the Union of Islamic Courts. He was held in custody in Kenya until this weekend when he was suddenly deported with about 30 other prisoners to Mogadishu.

 

Now his cousins here fear Makhtal, believed to be about 40, will be punished and tortured because of his family's history. They say his grandfather was a freedom fighter for ethnic Somalis in eastern Ethiopia.

 

"I can't even breathe," said Said Maktal, 35, of Hamilton, a cousin of the jailed man. Said Maktal and his brother Hussein are extremely worried about their cousin.

 

"He's like my brother – my older brother," said Said.

 

"Anything could happen, any minute, any second," he said. "You're dealing with a Third World country, which does not obey international law. They don't care."

 

His fear: His cousin will be sent to Ethiopia from Somalia, where he will be executed or tortured.

 

"A few minutes ago I was praying for him," said Said, a lab technician at a chemical company in Hamilton. "It could be any minute they put him in the hands of the Ethiopians. We haven't slept.

 

"We're really worried about him and the situation in Ethiopia because we're ****** people," explained Said. "I'm scared that they're going to kill him at any moment. He's the grandson of Makhtal Dahir – he was a well-known person, who was trying to get freedom for his own people."

 

"Bashir ran away from all those problems to have a better life so he could help his family."

 

Makhtal was arrested on suspicions that he was a member of the ****** National Liberation Front, which wants to set up its own homeland for ethnic Somalis who live in the eastern part of Ethiopia.

 

"Anybody who comes from that region can be accused of being a member or a sympathizer. In Ethiopia that is a crime," said Mohamed Aidid, chair of the ****** Somali Community Association of Ontario.

 

News reports in Kenya said Makhtal was an alleged member of the front, an Ethiopian rebel group.

 

The deportees – including Makhtal – were among scores of suspected Islamist fighters and supporters rounded up by Kenyan forces after a military incursion that ended the rule of Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts.

 

In Mogadishu, the deportees were put into the custody of Ethiopian soldiers, according to government sources.

 

"They were shackled with chains on their feet and handcuffs on their hands behind their backs," Kenyan lawyer Harun Mdubi told Reuters. "Ethiopia regards them as an enemy, so I really fear they could face the same fate as Saddam Hussein now."

 

That's what worries Makhtal's relatives and the ****** Somali Community Association and they're begging Ottawa to help. The group sent a fax last Tuesday to the Canadian high commission in Nairobi, Kenya alerting them to Makhtal's arrest and detention.

 

A copy of that letter was also sent to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

 

"We are very concerned as a community for the safety of our fellow Canadian," Aidid wrote.

 

"He has been in detention for two weeks with no Canadian consular access and no access to a lawyer either ... We are writing to ... request that all efforts be dispensed to secure immediate consular access to the Canadian in distress. Canada should secure guarantees from Kenya that this Canadian will not be rendered to Ethiopia."

 

Just after Makhtal was arrested Aidid said the association received a phone call from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service about the case.

 

"Two guys from CSIS came to our offices. We gave them the information we had about him and they said they were eager to help him."

 

Aidid, who had met Makhtal on several occasions, worries he may end up like Maher Arar – a Canadian who was picked up at Kennedy airport in New York and transported to Syria where he was tortured and a year later released.

 

"But in this case we might not see him again. That's what we're afraid of.

 

"We want the Canadian government to pressure the government to release him."

 

Makhtal came to Canada in 1991, his cousin said. He became a Canadian citizen in 1994, according to documents he left with his cousin. He studied computer science and worked as a computer programmer for both CIBC and the Bank of Montreal. At CIBC he was a senior analyst.

 

He returned to Somalia about four or five years ago, Said said, hoping to help support his relatives there and thought running his own business would be more financially lucrative. Makhtal was married last year.

 

Alain Cacchione, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs said: "Canada strongly objects to the deportation of the Canadian citizen to Somalia ..."

 

Cacchione said Canada has been working to obtain information and consular access to Makhtal, but since he is now in Somalia, it will be difficult to intervene.

 

With files from Reuters

[Jabhad]

Somalia conflict has hit home! God save Somalia.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Ayaandaro. Yaa ogaado Addis Ababa ayaaba already loo qaaday and torturing him has started.

 

Maskiinka Bashiir, Eebbe ha u gargaaro.

[Jabarjaan]

whose fault is all these?

[Fabregas]

why don't you tell us?

[Haneefah]

Clearly, a sheer violation of international laws and human rights with respect to Kenya's action regarding this case. Assuredly, Ethiopia was the culprit behind this illegal transfer of the innocent prisoners. Allow cadowgeena jabi.

 

Maskiinka Bashiir, Eebbe ha u gargaaro.

Ameen Walal. It's been a tremendously difficult time.

 

May Allah SWT protect him and all the other innocent Muslims, oppressed in the hands of the kufaar and munafiqoon.

[Jabarjaan]

Government in Kenya is nothing but weak a** adminstration. I don't even think they have army. How dare would an independent nation would work for another nation. Kenya Ethiopia iney dabada ka laaddo bey ka baqi malaha. dowlad dowlad u shaqeen diintaad garo!