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 Relatives
receive news months after man went missing
April 12, 2007
Debra Black
Staff Reporter
Ethiopia has acknowledged to Canada that it has Bashir Makhtal in
detention and said he will be given consular access after the
government finishes an investigation into alleged ties to a
separatist group.
The information was relayed to Makhtal's cousin, Said Maktal,
yesterday in a telephone call from Derrick Patry, an official at
Canada's foreign affairs department in Ottawa.
"They told me that they have received an official report from the
Canadian embassy in Addis Ababa that the foreign affairs minister of
Ethiopia has admitted to our Canadian ambassador that they have
Bashir," Said Maktal said.
"The ambassador has requested immediate access to see Bashir," said
Maktal, recounting what the Canadian official told him.
"The Ethiopian minister said they had to do an investigation first
about the Ogaden National Liberation Front and after they finish
that they said they'd give the Canadian embassy staff access to see
Bashir."
Maktal is relieved his cousin, a Canadian citizen who lived in
Toronto for 10 years after coming here as a refugee, is alive. But
he's worried Ethiopia may fabricate evidence to tie his cousin to
the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which is fighting for the
independence of ethnic Somalis in eastern Ethiopia.
Makhtal is the grandson of one of the group's founders, but his
family insists he has no involvement in the organization.
Makhtal is one of 41 prisoners from 17 countries that Ethiopia now
admits it has been holding. Twenty-nine were ordered released by a
military court, while the other 12, including Makhtal, will still be
detained. Some of the detainees will appear in court tomorrow, but
it's unclear if Makhtal will be among them.
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.
"Now we know he's detained that's an important first step," said
Lorne Waldman, a Toronto lawyer hired by Makhtal's family. "We have
to make sure he gets all the due process that he's entitled to."
Source: Toronto Star
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Do all the
good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you
can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to
all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
by John
Wesley |
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