RFI exclusive - Kenya/Ethiopia

Kenyan detainees insist Ethiopia used torture

Article published on the 2008-10-05 Latest update 2008-10-10 07:30 TU

(Map: GéoAtlas)

On Saturday two of the eight Kenyans who returned home from jail in Ethiopia this weekend reiterated accusations of mistreatment and torture. The eight had been held without charge since 2006 on suspicion of links to Al-Qaeda. They were among a group of people moved from Kenya to Somalia and then held in custody in Ethiopia as part of a so-called "rendition" exercise.

Ethiopia on Saturday denied the accusations of torture and mistreatment made by the group Human Rights Watch (HRW). Its Foreign Ministry said "many of the details claimed by HRW are unsubstantiated" and denied that the detainees had been seized "arbitrarily".

RFI spoke to 36-year-old Salim Ouad Salim in a hospital in Mombassa who said he had undergone months of torture while in custody. "I have been tortured - very very bad torture, about six months torture." He said he had suffered "brainwashing" and psychological torture.

Another detainee undergoing medical tests at the same hospital, 50-year-old Rachid Said Mohamed told RFI that, following torture, he had incurred damage to his back, hand and leg and that his teeth were broken. He said he had spent a year and eight months in prison before speaking to a Kenyan official.

Speaking to RFI, Ali-Amin Kimathi of Kenya's Muslim Human Rights Forum blamed the Kenyan government for not having secured the release of the Kenyan nationals before this weekend. "Ethiopia held onto these men for so long because the Kenyan government did not lay any claim on them". Kimathi said that other governments that had "laid claim to their citizens" were given access to them and had managed to secure the release of their nationals in this way.

 

The eight Kenyans were part of a group of 150 people detained by Kenyan forces in late 2006 and taken to the Kenyan capital. Some of the 150 were released while others were moved from Nairobi into the custody of the Ethiopian military in Somalia which then transferred them to the Ethiopian capital Addis Abeba. Some of those held were interrogated by US and other foreign intelligence services before they were moved from Nairobi. Kenya's government spokesman, Alfred Mutua said "The government never deported any known Kenyans from this country".

The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry says that the people were detained in 2006 since there were "strong grounds for suspicion of terrorist involvement" and pointed to insufficient prison facilities in Somalia as the reason the detainees were moved to Ethiopia.

A ninth Kenyan, Abdulkadir Mohamed Aden, remains in Ethiopian custody.