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Vertaal:
              Het onderzoeken `Afrika Guantanamo'
Donderdag, 2 Oktober, 2008 Salim Awadh spreekt aan me van binnenuit een cel ergens in het Ethiopische kapitaal, Addis Ababa. Door Robert Walker | Er zijn zeven andere gevangenen die in de zelfde kleine, donkere ruimte worden gehouden, begint hij me te vertellen. Dan houdt hij plotseling op sprekend. Ik kan het gekke fluisteren op de achtergrond horen. Dan zegt hij het veilig is te dragen. De „voorwaarden zijn werkelijk slecht: wij hebben genoeg voedsel niet, hebben wij genoeg toegang tot geneeskunde niet. De cel is nat,“ hij zegt. „Wij slapen op de vloer eerder dan de doorweekte matrassen. Één van de andere gevangenen werd geslagen zo slecht hij heeft gehad zijn gebroken been.“ Salim kan aan me spreken omdat hij een wacht en een gekregen toegang tot een mobiele telefoon heeft omgekocht. Voor weken heb ik geprobeerd om informatie over hem en andere gevangenen te weten te komen in wat „Guantanamo van Afrika“ is genoemd. Het is een verhaal de overheden in kwestie niet willen spreken over: De eerste massavertolking van terroristenverdachten in Afrika. In Januari 2007, hadden de Ethiopische troepen controle van het kapitaal van Somalië, Mogadishu genomen, die de Unie van Islamitische Hof (UIC) verdringt, een beweging Islamist die veel van zuidelijk Somalië voor de vorige zes maanden had gecontroleerd. De leden van UIC, de militievechters en de burgers allen vluchtten naar Kenia. Onder hen waren Salim Awadh, een Keniaan, en zijn Tanzaniaanse vrouw, Fatma Chande. Beiden werden gearresteerd aangezien zij de grens overschreden. „Ik werd gehouden in een cel met andere vrouwen. Dan vroeg de Keniaanse antiterroristenpolitie me - zij vroegen me waarom wij naar Somalië gingen,“ Fatma zeggen. Ik ontmoet Fatma in haar klein twee-ruimte huis in Moshi, noordelijk Tanzania. Zij wordt stil gesproken en haar stem wankelt aangezien zij verklaart wat daarna gebeurde. „Ik vertelde hen mijn echtgenoot gekregen een baan herstellend mobiele telefoons in Somalië. Maar zij probeerden om me te dwingen om toe te geven dat mijn echtgenoot een terrorist was. Zij zeiden ik hen de waarheid moest vertellen of zij me.“ zouden wurgen De zorgen van de grens Overheid van Kenia - en zijn Westelijke bondgenoten - had lang Somalië als toevluchtsoord voor terroristen met betrekking tot al-Qaeda gezien, met inbegrip van die verantwoordelijk voor het bombarderen van 1998 van de ambassades van de V.S. in Kenia en Tanzania. Met UIC in terugtocht, vreesden zij dat de extremisten zouden kunnen proberen om over de grens uit te glijden. In the first weeks of early 2007, news began to filter out that several hundred people - including children - had been arrested trying to enter Kenya. Al Amin Kimathi, the head of Kenya’s Muslim Human Rights Forum, sent volunteers to police stations across the capital, Nairobi, trying to collect information. “Some very frustrated senior police officers told us point blank: it’s not our operation, go and ask the Americans, just call the American embassy. We even saw the Americans bring in detainees and take them out of certain police stations in Nairobi,” he said. Before Kenyan lawyers’ applications for their release could be considered, the authorities took an extraordinary step. “It was a Saturday, the police called us in the middle of the night. We were taken to the airport. My husband was made to kneel down on the tarmac,” says Fatima. “We had our hands tied behind our backs with plastic cuffs. There were men, women, children. We were blindfolded. People were crying. The police were telling them to keep quiet.” Two hours later, Fatma and Salim found themselves on the tarmac of Mogadishu airport. The Kenyan government sent two other planeloads of prisoners to Somalia. According to the passenger manifests at least 85 prisoners were on board. Most of them were soon picked from Somali prison cells and taken to Ethiopia. “A week after we arrived we were interrogated by whites - Americans, British, I was interrogated for weeks,” Salim says. “They had a file which was said to implicate me in the Kenyan bombings. So I was taken away and was placed in isolation for two months - both my hands and legs were shackled. “The interrogations went on for five months. Always the same questions about the Nairobi bombings.” Threats Former detainees have also told the BBC they were questioned by US agents. One said he was beaten by Americans. Two others said they were threatened and told that if they did not co-operate they could face ill treatment at the hands of Ethiopian guards. All said they believed it was the Americans and not the Ethiopians controlling their detention and interrogation. Human rights groups in the region say this was a new form of extraordinary rendition. The US did not play an overt role in the transportation or detention of suspects as it has in the rendition of other suspected terrorists, but it nevertheless controlled their interrogation and treatment. Al Amin Kimathi believes Ethiopia was seen as the ideal destination. “It was the most natural place to take anyone looking for a site to go and torture and to extract confessions. Ethiopia allows torture of detainees. And that is the modus operandi in renditions.” In April last year, Ethiopia acknowledged that it was holding 41 people from 17 countries, describing them as “suspected terrorists”. Most of the detainees were released after a few months, among them Fatma Chande, apparently as their interrogations were completed or under pressure from their home governments. The Ethiopian government acknowledges up to 10 foreign suspects are still being detained. “I’m not sure whether they have appeared before a court. The investigation continues,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Tekede Alemu told the BBC. “These are people who were engaged in causing harm to the national interest, the security interest… These are not innocent people.” The minister rejected claims the detainees have been mistreated. He also denied US agents had been allowed to control the interrogations of foreign prisoners. More than a year and a half after the renditions, the US government still refuses to respond to questions on the alleged US role. “I have no knowledge of it nor as official policy can I comment on such matters,” US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer told the BBC. The Kenyan police say no Kenyans were amongs those flown by the Kenyan government to Somalia. Meanwhile Fatma is still waiting anxiously for news of her husband. After Salim got access to a mobile phone, he was able to speak to her from his cell for the first time in more than a year. Now the phone has stopped working, Salim has disappeared once again.
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