The worried family of a Winnipegger jailed in Ethiopia for nearly a month breathed a sigh of relief this week.
Canadian embassy staff told Fewaz Hargaaya's mother in Winnipeg they've been in touch with the 26-year-old man, who was visiting relatives in Ethiopia when arrested in early April.
"...They advised my mother that Fewaz is in good health, and that the prison conditions are fair," said his sister, Iftu Hargaaya, in Winnipeg. She said the family no longer wants to discuss his situation after being advised by Foreign Affairs that media attention might actually hurt her brother's case rather than help it.
Earlier, his family had been receiving second-hand reports from inside the prison at Dire Dawa that he was sick and had been beaten by guards. His family has also heard Hargaaya was arrested for carrying walkie-talkies and was suspected of political activism. They're now keeping mum on the advice of the Canadian government, which is one of Ethiopia's biggest financial supporters.
Fewaz is not the first Canadian citizen to be jailed in Ethiopia, accused of being opposed to its government.
Bashir Makhtal, a former Toronto information technology specialist who ran a used-clothing business in Africa, has been locked up in Ethiopia for four years. He's accused of terrorism and being involved with the Ogaden National Liberation Front. Makhtal's grandfather had been a co-founder of the movement.
In a letter smuggled out of prison in December, the Makhtal, 42, said he was angry at the Canadian government for supporting the regime holding him.
"I am writing to tell my fellow Canadian citizens that I am a hostage for an African country which receives millions of dollars of the taxes... from our government as humanitarian aid."
Canada was the fourth-biggest donor to Ethiopia in 2008, providing about US$153 million in aid, nearly three times the 2004 amount.
A Human Rights Watch report last fall said Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipients of foreign aid, receiving more than $3 billion in 2008. Ethiopia's ruling party is routinely using aid money to reward supporters and punish those who fail to support it, the report said.
Ethiopia is regarded as the West's strategic, stable ally in the war on terror in the Horn of Africa, where violence in Somalia has spilled across borders.
The 105-page Human Rights Watch report documents the ways in which the Ethiopian government uses donor-supported resources and aid as a tool to consolidate the power of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. The organization called on donor countries to examine development aid to Ethiopia to ensure it is not supporting political repression.
Canada's government said it would look into it.
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