Canadian begs for Ethiopian rescue
Asks Ottawa to step in to help end 6-month ordeal that's left him languishing in solitary confinement

June 08, 2007
Debra Black
Staff Reporter

A Canadian citizen imprisoned in Ethiopia has made his first public plea to the federal government to rescue him from a "brutal and merciless regime" that he says threatened him with torture before videotaping an interrogation.

Former Torontonian Bashir Makhtal has asked his family and fellow Canadians for help in getting Ottawa to safeguard his rights as a citizen under illegal detention in Ethiopia without access to Canadian diplomats or a lawyer. His plea for help, in a letter received last week by a cousin, describes a six-month odyssey of detentions in three countries that has left him languishing in solitary confinement in a country he fled 30 years ago as child.

Makhtal was detained by Kenyan authorities in late December as he tried to cross the border from Somalia to be reunited with his wife in Nairobi. The Ethiopian-born Makhtal, who moved to East Africa in late 2001 after several years in Canada, was returning from a sales trip for his used clothing business.

Although he was travelling on his Canadian passport – he does not have travel documents from any other country – Kenyan authorities deported him to Somalia and he was then whisked to Ethiopia in January on a military flight, he says. In the letter to his Canadian cousin, Said Maktal, Bashir Makhtal asks that he be tried in a civilian court with the right to a lawyer and Canadian government representatives observing.

"My only hope and possible chance is the Canadian government," the letter says. "Without your strong involvement and presence in the court I will have no chance and will be like thousands of those who are lingering in the Ethiopian jails and detention centres because they don't have anybody to speak for them.

"I would like to repeat my humble and desperate request to the Canadian embassy in Addis (Ababa) and Canadian government to rescue me," the letter says.

Makhtal is among 41 prisoners from at least 17 countries that Ethiopia has admitted holding. Canadian Foreign Affairs officials say the Ethiopian government acknowledged on April 13 they have Makhtal, but Canadian officials have so far been denied access to him.

Foreign Affairs officials said they continue to push for the right to see him, but cannot explain why they have failed to gain access while other countries have been able to visit their citizens. Ottawa says it has been told its officials will get access to Makhtal once an Ethiopian investigation is completed.

Ethiopia has so far released a number of foreign prisoners including three Swedes, and a 24-year-old American, Amir Mohammed Meshal. Meshal, a U.S. citizen of Egyptian origin, was questioned by U.S. agents in Kenya, according to a report by Amnesty International. He was released and sent home to the United States without any charges last week.

According to Amnesty International, about 140 people were arrested by Kenyan authorities as the borders clamped down during the war in Somalia. Eighty-five were transferred back to Somalia and on to Ethiopia in January and February. Twenty-seven were released in Kenya or sent back to their countries and one was charged in Kenya.

The Ethiopian government has acknowledged it is holding 41 of those transferred to Somalia and Ethiopia. Four British nationals were sent back to Britain. Another 40 people remain unaccounted for, Amnesty International says.

The letter says that at the airport, just before Makhtal was deported from Kenya, he screamed out on the runway: "I'm a Canadian citizen and you have no right to deport me to Somalia with the Ethiopian army and my life is in danger if you do.

"I asked them to deport me to my country (Canada) instead."

According to Makhtal's letter, on Jan. 22 he was transferred from Somalia's Mogadishu airport, where he had been kept for two days, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He has been detained there ever since at the Central Bureau of Investigation.

It is clear from the letter that both Kenya and Ethiopia violated Makhtal's rights under international law, human rights lawyer Lorne Waldman said.

"The time for quiet diplomacy has passed given what we now know," he said. "The Canadian government must make strong protests to Kenya and a firm protest to Ethiopia demanding it give Bashir access to a lawyer and due process."

In the letter, Makhtal says he was forced to record a videotaped statement on April 18, after almost three months of resisting, because his captors threatened "they will torture me if I don't give or tell what they want ... However, they didn't get what they want and ... I'm really terrified and worry about my future and my precious life."

Makhtal's grandfather was one of the founders of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a group that wants independence for the region in eastern Ethiopia. Now, members of the Ogaden Somali community in Canada plan to press Makhtal's case in Ottawa, holding a demonstration next Monday in front of the Prime Minister's Office as well as the Ethiopian embassy and the Kenyan high commission.

Canada has an obligation to help its citizens, said Waldman.


Said Maktal, who lives in Hamilton, said he fears for his cousin's safety. He has been detained in an isolated prison cell and has not been allowed to talk to or see anyone until recently. Even security guards aren't allowed to talk to him.

Makhtal's letter details how he was arrested at gunpoint at the Kenyan border as he tried to flee the civil war in Somalia. He says he was detained in four different jails in Kenya and that his Canadian passport taken by Kenyan authorities. He says he was investigated by five different committees in Kenya, including one headed by a "police general," and they all concluded he was innocent. The letter says Makhtal was then interrogated by Ethiopian military officials posing as Kenyan security officers and handed over to the Ethiopian Army.

An Ethiopian lawyer, recommended to the family here by the Canadian government, was told by prison officials they have no record of Makhtal being confined in any prison – several weeks after Ottawa confirmed he was being detained in Ethiopia. Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday there is nothing to report on negotiations for consular access. They would not say whether they are investigating the confiscation of Makhtal's passport by Kenyan authorities.

Toronto Star

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