Ethiopian pleads for refugee status

By MICHAEL MANDARANO


Moti Nano, a native of Ethiopia who fled to Canada in 2001, has been living at Ottawa's All Saints Lutheran Church since he was ordered deported in January 2005.
Moti Nano has faced much adversity in his young life, including the murder of his brother and repeated torture at the hands of the oppressive Ethiopian government.
The 33-year-old Ethiopian refugee fled his African home for Canada in 2001 and has not looked back since. But in February 2004, Nano was ordered deported after a lone adjudicator rejected his bid for refugee status. When the deportation order was handed down on Jan. 10, 2005, Nano found sanctuary in Ottawa's All Saints Lutheran Church, where he has been living ever since.
The government said it will respect Nano's claim of sanctuary while at the church.
A recent two-week stay at the Ottawa Hospital's General campus, where he was treated for an unspecified respiratory illness, left him vulnerable to deportation. But authorities didn't take action, and he returned to the church recently.
"Of course, I was afraid thinking something may go wrong on our way (from the hospital), but God protected me," said Nano, who has a degree in political science and international relations from Addis Ababa University. "I am feeling great and my appetite is back."
Nano, a human rights worker, fled Ethiopia after criticizing that government's human rights record. He said he was repeatedly arrested and beaten by Ethiopian security forces for being a member of the Oromo ethnic group, which accounts for about 40% of the country's population.
"(In Ethiopia) the government is a party which comes by gun, and which always tries to be in power," Nano said. "They kill any appealing opposition group that comes and (threatens) to take over."
BROTHER KILLED
Besides the beatings, Nano claimed he had his hair cut with broken beer bottles and was forced to run barefoot on gravel.
He also said his brother was killed by the Tigreans for being associated with the Oromo Liberation Front. Nano claimed to have no political affiliation.
Nano is waiting for a decision on his application for protection on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
"I was a person who should have deserved a convention refugee status as soon as I arrived in this country, let alone waiting for years and be given a deportation order."
While a member of the opposition, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day requested a stay of deportation for all Ethiopian refugees.
"It occurs to me that in light of the pending chaos in Ethiopia ... that it would be a dereliction of our responsibilities as a democracy and a champion of other democracies to compel Ethiopian citizens here -- unless they have clearly proved themselves to be criminals -- to return to that hopeless setting," Day wrote in December 2005.
All Saints Lutheran sanctuary committee member Paul Merkley said he's frustrated that Day has not pursued the issue since the Conservative victory.
"We're very disappointed that with the change of government there hasn't been a change of attitudes towards these kinds of humanitarian concerns," he said.
The church has sent letters to Immigration Minister Monte Solberg and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, appealing for a stay of deportation. The appeal has been unsuccessful so far.
Source: http://ottsun.canoe.ca