20/04/2020 (Brève 1593) Demande d’intervention en faveur du Lt Faoud et analyse de la siutation à djiboutii, dans la lettre qu’Houmed Ibrahim adresse au HC DH à Genève

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A Madame Michelle BACHELET
Haut-Commissariat aux droits de l’homme
Palais Wilson-  52 rue des Pâquis
CH-1201 Genève, Suisse

Subject: Request to intervene with the Ethiopian Prime Minister ABIY Ahmedfor the non-extradition of Lieutenant Fouad YOUSSOUF ALI to Djibouti

Madam,
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,

It is as a French citizen from the Republic of Djibouti and human rights activist that I come here to ask your kindness to intervene with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr ABIY Ahmed to prevent the extradition of the Lieutenant Fouad YOUSSOUF ALI.
This Djiboutian officer fled the dictatorship of Mr. Ismael Omar Guelleh, self-proclaimed President of Djibouti, and he has been in detention since April 10, 2020, by the Ethiopian authorities, probably waiting for a court to examine the legality of his possible extradition to Djibouti.

Mr. Fouad YOUSSOUF ALI is an honest officer who aspires only to good governance and respect for human rights in his country. If it is difficult to know with exactitude the nature of the tortures which he underwent, the abuses of power and other repeated vexations which he had to endure, I have reasons to think that the remarks which he reports are irrefutable.

The advent of a self-proclaimed President of State in Djibouti in 1999, Mr. Ismael Omar Guelleh has radicalized the Djiboutian regime to the point that certain practices are almost daily in my country of origin;

  • the violence exerted on political opponents, in particular women and children since 1999-2000
  • the repeated arrests of active members of the legal opposition;
  • intimidation and threats by the regime against people deemed critical of the government (threats of dismissal and often unfair dismissal);
  • the impossibility of expressing themselves freely in the Republic of Djibouti (all the organs of Djiboutian opposition parties have stopped publishing their internal newspapers);
  • the difficulty of living decently because the big employer of the country being the State, once put in the hot seat, you are condemned to misery.

Today the Republic of Djibouti has a national assembly composed of 100% of the members of a single party, at least of a pseudo-coalition of parties, whose members are first appointed by the President of the Republic.

The 2005 presidential elections were boycotted by the entire opposition. In February 2007, the Djiboutian opposition decided not to stand for parliamentary elections because the basic conditions for a free, transparent and democratic election are not met in the country. In 2013, the opposition suffered an electoral holdup! The opposition does not have access to the national press, totally subservient to the dominant political party. These are some general characteristics of the country where Mr. Fouad YOUSSOUF ALI comes from.

If this extradition were to take place, it would mean that Mr. Fouad YOUSSOUF ALI would be sent back to a country where he would risk being tortured or sentenced on the basis of confessions extracted under torture and, above all, programmed death. Previous experiences have shown that Ismael Omar Guelleh, unscrupulous in respecting human rights, does not hesitate to kill any opposition in the bud.

A less severe note from the DGSE describes him as a “business person, corrupt and without any moral or human scruples”.

Long before Lieutenant Fouad YOUSSOUF ALI, other officers gave their lives for contradicting him. What is more, Fouad belongs to the Issa FOURLABA clan. Against this clan, the regime of the tyrant Ismaël Omar Guelleh imagined a Machiavellian response of great cruelty since taking power: to calm their ardor, they simply had to be eliminated. Thus, many ISSAS officers belonging to the FOURLABA clan or to other Issa clans lost their lives in circumstances which are not yet clarified because they are not subject to investigations by the prosecution. Among them, we can cite

  • General of Division, Yacin YABEH GALAB, Chief of the Police Staff
  • Youssouf ALI CHIRDON, Minister of the Interior
  • Captain CAMUS
  • Colonel Abdi BOGOREH, Chief of the Gendarmerie
  • Colonel Nasser ADEN GUIRREH, defenestrated in the presence of General Zakaria
  • Colonel Omar BARREH, Chief of the Defense Staff killed in a simulated accident

If I write to you, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, it is to the extent that it is within your area of competence to intervene with States in the field of human rights.

I ask you to intervene with the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Doctor ABIY Ahmed, Nobel Peace Prize so that this extradition does not take place and to save this soldier Ryan or the soldier Fouad YOUSSOUF ALI.
With my respectful greetings.

Houssein IBRAHIM HOUMED