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Family fears
for deported man's life |
Kin queried
as Somali-Canadian held in Ethiopia
February 04, 2007
Debra Black
Staff Reporter
The Canadian
intelligence service has begun asking more
questions about the case of a Canadian who
was arrested on the Somalia-Kenya border in
late December.
An officer with CSIS visited the Hamilton
home of Said Maktal, a cousin of the missing
Canadian, late last week, asking questions
about Bashir Makhtal, the 40-year-old former
Toronto man who was picked up in a sweep at
the border while he tried to escape the
escalating war in Somalia.
Said Maktal said in an interview with the
Star that the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service officer visited his home Thursday
morning and spent 40 minutes with him,
asking specific questions about Bashir and
his life in Toronto and whether he knew of
any reason why Bashir would be arrested.
The officer also asked if Bashir might have
any current affiliations with the Ogaden
National Liberation Front, an
Ethiopian-Somali separatist group. Said
explained that his grandfather had been one
of the founders of the group, but he told
the officer that Bashir was not involved. "I
said anyone could be accused, even I – just
for being from that part of the world."
This isn't the first time CSIS has expressed
interest in the case. Two officers from CSIS
also visited the Toronto offices of the
Ogaden Somali Community Association of
Ontario Jan. 6, according to association
officials.
It has been two weeks since Bashir Makhtal,
who is a Somali born in the Ogaden area in
Ethiopia, was taken from his cell in Nairobi
and deported first to Mogadishu and then to
Addis Ababa, according to sources. Haron
Ndubi, a human rights lawyer in Kenya acting
for Makhtal, last spoke to him just before
he was put on a plane.
Ndubi said that Makhtal was detained
illegally in Nairobi. The Kenyan government,
however, said it didn't know Makhtal was a
Canadian citizen but thought he was a
Somali, an assertion Ndubi calls a lie since
the Kenyan government had Makhtal's Canadian
passport.
Makhtal came to Canada in 1991 and became a
Canadian citizen in 1994. He worked in
Toronto as a computer programmer at two of
Canada's big banks. He returned home in 2004
to start his own business, selling used
clothes across the Horn of Africa. War broke
out in Somalia while he was there selling
clothes and he was arrested as he tried to
leave the country on his Canadian passport.
He was detained in Nairobi for three weeks.
Then, two days before he was to have a
hearing, he was whisked away and deported
back to Somalia and then to Ethiopia,
according to Ndubi. The government alleged
first that he was somehow connected to the
Union of Islamic Courts and then that he was
a sympathizer or member of the Ogaden
National Liberation Front.
Makhtal was caught up in a wave of
deportations of Somalis from Kenya, said
Ndubi. The deportations of Somalis,
including Makhtal, is becoming a heated
issue in Kenya with a number of
demonstrations by human rights groups
planned for next week in Nairobi.
As the weeks go by, Makhtal's relatives here
and across the Horn of Africa are becoming
increasingly fearful that he will not be
found alive.
In Nairobi, Makhtal's wife Aziza has been
chastised by government officials for doing
an interview with CBC Television about her
husband's arrest and deportation.
His mother and sisters, who live in the
Ogaden region, believe Makhtal is in
detention in Addis Ababa but have been
unable to find out where.
A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs told the
Star that Canadian officials in the region
are attempting to locate Makhtal to check on
his well-being. Rejean Beaulieu said the
consular staff here in Canada have also been
in contact with the family.
Maktal said he has been assured by Foreign
Affairs that they are doing their best to
locate his cousin and get consular access.
But he believes the Canadian government
should be doing more to help his cousin.
"What's the point of having Canadian
citizenship if you can't be protected?" he
said. |
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