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Silenced voices: Cheikh Kone
by Siobhan Dowd for International P.E.N.

URL: www./dfn.org/news/australia/silenced-cheikh.htm

(July 29, 2002) The definition of a refugee, according to the United
Nations-sponsored Convention on the Status of Refugees, is somebody with a
"well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
nationality, membership of a social group, or political opinion".

The UN High Commission for Refugees has also issued a set of guidelines
relating to the treatment of asylum seekers: as well as stating the right of
refugees to non-forced return to their countries, it requires that those
whose status is being examined should not in principle be detained. When
detained, they should not be detained for long. And if detained, it should
only be in cases where there is a known criminal background or where there
is clear guilt of such offences as falsification of passports or other
identity documents.

These standards have been agreed upon in theory by the many countries
acceding to the Convention but in practice they are flouted continually,
openly, and without apology. Arbitrary and long-term detention of asylum
seekers has become commonplace in western countries, especially following
the terrorism fears unleashed by the events of September 11, 2001. Asylum
seekers are generally presumed to be "bogus." Harsh treatment of them is
hailed as the only way to stop more coming in droves. Interestingly, those
thus harshly treated are rarely if ever white, and the toughest countries
tend to be those with perhaps the most space, both economic and geographic.
Australia is a prime example. It routinely detains asylum seekers and their
families, including minors, indefinitely in facilities that are reliably
reported to be sub-standard.

One center, in Woomera, has only 40 showers and toilets for 1,700 people.
The inmates, children included, have protested by burning down buildings,
staging hunger strikes, mutiliating themselves and, in one reported revolt,
sewing their lips together. Although the UN Human Rights Committee has
criticised Australia for its attitude to asylum seekers, the government
remains intransigent.

Cheikh Kone, a journalist from the Ivory Coast, is one victim among many
languishing in Australia's detention camps. His detention without charge or
trial, with no accusation even that he has committed any crime at all, is
now entering its twenty-first month. Armed robbers and those guilty of
violent crimes often fare better.

Cheikh Kone: "A victim twice over"

Like many asylum seekers, Cheikh Kone is now a victim twice over. The
research on his case undertaken by the Writers in Prison Committee of
International PEN has confirmed his claim that he was a journalist for an
opposition newspaper, that he has been previously detained for political
reasons, and that at the time he fled his country he had a "well-founded
fear" of persecution. After a military coup in the Ivory Coast, many like
him were arrested and arbitrarily detained. Fifty-seven of Cheikh Kone's
fellow opposition supporters were found in a mass grave—victims,
Amnesty International concluded, of extrajudicial execution.

Cheikh Kone, otherwise known as "detainee number NBP451", is 26. He started
his career as a journalist in the late 1990s, when he began writing for Le
Patriote, He was also active in the youth wing of the opposition party
Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR), and a member of the Dioula ethnic
group which has been subject to racial attacks and discrimination. He
quickly became a target himself: in 1997 he was arrested for his article
criticizing the country's electoral act and held for three months before
being released without charge. He was reportedly tortured while in
detention.

In December 1999, the government was overthrown by the military. Elections
were held the following October, but in the interim, there were widespread
human rights abuses, mostly committed by the security forces. Amnesty
International states that "killings and torture were carried out with total
impunity." Many of these crimes were directed at the RDR, whose leader was
banned from taking part in the election. RDR members took to the streets in
protest. When the election was over, Cheikh Kone's response was to write a
strident article decrying the improper manipulation of the electoral
process.

The editor of his paper was, however, apparently too frightened to publish
it. But it nevertheless seems to have been leaked to the military who came
to his home in search of him. Kone was warned by friends and family to make
himself scarce. In the final days of October 2000, he hid himself in a jeep
and crossed over the border to Ghana. He made his way south, through Togo,
and Benin and then traveled by boat to Durban in South Africa. Here he
stowed away in a container ship under a Panamanian flag; he did not even
know, he says, where the boat was bound.

The boat arrived in Fremantle in January 2001. He was questioned in English,
without access to a French interpreter. Then he was transferred to the Port
Hedland Detention Centre where he has remained ever since. So far his
application for refugee status has been rejected; the authorities claim that
in his first interview, his story was unclear and contradictory. He insists
that at the time his English was too poor for him to state his case
properly; he was intimidated by his interviewers, and had scant
understanding of his legal status.

He is now in danger of being returned to the Ivory Coast where he believes
he will still be a marked man. His detention, in his own words, is "making
me crazy."

What you can do:

Please write letters politely asking that Cheikh Kone be released from
detention and that he be given adequate legal representation and a further
opportunity to plead his case to:

The Honorable John Howard MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Suite MG 8
Parliament House
Canberra
Australia

Fax: +02 9816 134
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