By Ben Lynfield | Mideast Youth

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – The UN’s refugee agency has confirmed that ninety one African refugees expelled by the Israeli army to Egypt as part of Israel’s controversial “hot return” policy have gone missing.

A spokeswoman in Cairo for the United Nations High Commission on Refugees said that Egypt has not responded to requests for information about the 91, who were returned shortly after crossing illegally from Sinai into Israel, in at least some cases without any chance to present asylum requests.“We don’t have access to this group, we do not where they are,” the UNHCR spokeswoman said

According to an IDF reserve soldier who participated in a hot return in August, refugees were blindfolded and forced back to Egypt only twenty minutes after they had been shot at by Egyptian police for trying to cross into Israel.

Israel revived the hot returns policy in August for the first time since 48 refugees, most of them Sudanese, disappeared after being forcibly returned a year earlier. At least five of them are known to have been sent back to Sudan, despite what the government said were assurances from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that this would not happen. The punishment for visiting Israel is protracted imprisonment or death, according to Sudanese law..

Andy David, Israeli foreign ministry deputy spokesman said: “Complaints that they are disappearing in Egypt should not be brought to Israel. We can’t be held responsible for what the Egyptians are doing.” He said there was an “understanding” with Egypt that refugees should be well treated, “but it is not Israel’s responsibility to not deport someone back to Egypt because of the chance he will be treated differently.”

“Most of those trying to cross are not from Darfur and are not refugees. They are deported back to where they have come from and this is what every country does,” he said. The New York based Human Rights Watch says Israel’s position contravenes the 1951 International Convention on Refugee Rights, to which it is a signatory. The convention bans expelling refugees to places where their lives and liberty are in danger

Anat Ben-Dor, head of the refugee legal clinic at Tel Aviv University, said in response to the disappearance of the 91 persons “We have been very disappointed with the state’s position that unless UNHCR says otherwise, Egypt is a safe country. We would expect the state to halt the returns in light of this.”

Since 2007, Egyptian guards have killed at least 33 migrants

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Egypt should stop shooting migrants attempting to sneak across the barbed wire border into Israel, a desperate journey that has gone from dangerous to deadly, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a new report.

Since 2007, Egyptian border guards have killed at least 33 migrants, many from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, including a pregnant woman and a 7-year-old girl, the report said. Many more have been wounded in shootings as Egypt attempts to respond to international criticism that it doesn’t do enough to secure its borders, it said.

Those detained by Egyptian guards at the border are put on trial in secret military courts and often denied access to the U.N. refugee agency in violation of international law, the 90-page report by the New York-based group added.

The report also accused Israel of forcibly returning at least 139 African migrants to Egypt, where they risk arrest and deportation.

“Egypt should stop shooting migrants who pose no threat and deporting others to possible torture,” said Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Middle East director. “Israel should not be forcibly returning people to Egypt, where they are detained arbitrarily and even deported to abusive home countries.”

One Sudanese refugee from Darfur talked to The Associated Press about his unsuccessful attempt to cross the rugged Sinai Peninsula border in July 2007. He spoke from his home in Cairo, but refused to give his name, fearing reprisals from the Egyptian government.

He said Egyptian border guards opened fire on him, his family and about three dozen other African migrants as they waited for their smuggler to finish cutting a hole in the barbed wire fence border.
“We all fell to the ground. I saw one pregnant woman with blood pouring out of her skull after she was shot in the head,” the 45-year-old refugee said. The 28-year-old woman died, and four others were injured, he said.

The guards arrested the group, beat them and took their belongings. The former farmer said he spent more than a year in several Egyptian prisons before his release in late August.

“Now we are struggling to live in Cairo, and there is no way we can go back to Sudan,” he said.
The stream of migrants from poor, conflict-ridden African countries crossing the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt to Israel has increased since 2007, apparently as word spread of job opportunities in Israel and chances for resettlement from Egypt to other countries dwindled. Steady work and social services are scarce in Egypt, a country of 76 million where 20 percent live on just $2 a day.

“The situation here is so bad. They (refugees) don’t have jobs or work in Egyptian homes and are mistreated. They become hopeless. So they try to leave, and Israel is the only place to go,” said Mohammed Adam, a Sudanese refugee living in Cairo.

Egypt has long been under pressure from Israel to do more to control its nearly 100-mile border. But it appeared to have adopted a “shoot-to-stop” policy after a meeting in June 2007 between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Human Rights Watch said.

“We are used to hearing about people dying trying to cross the desert from Mexico to the U.S. or at sea trying to get to Spain, but that’s not what we are talking about here. People are being killed for migration control and that is unusual and very, very worrisome,” said Michael Kagan, a senior fellow in human rights law at the American University in Cairo.

Egypt has defended its methods, saying the growing number of illegal border crossings jeopardizes security. An Egyptian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, described the situation as a “challenge” but sees “success.”
Human Rights Watch also criticized Israel for sending back migrants to Egypt. Of the 139 migrants Israel has sent back, at least 20 were then deported to Sudan, while the whereabouts of the rest are unknown, the report said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David said Israel has agreed to grant refuge to 500 asylum seekers from Darfur, but most illegal migrants are not from Darfur.

“Israel does not share a border with Sudan, a country which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and maintains a formal state of war with it. Those seeking to enter Israel have already crossed into Egypt, and therefore … (Egypt) is responsible for their safety,” David said.

(Associated Press writers Omar Sinan and Salah Nasrawi in Cairo and Matti Friedman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.)

GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA – Al Befekadu, an immigrant from Ethiopia, said today he was alone in his Pendleton convenience store when a gunman came in and asked for money.

“Sure,” Befekadu recalled saying, “Give me a second.”

Befekadu said he went into his back office during Wednesday night’s encounter and came out with a handgun — the same one he bought after a previous robbery on July 23.

“I just fired one warning shot, and he just dropped to the ground,” Befekadu said.

After the gunman bolted, Befekadu said he followed outside, fired another shot without aiming and then called the police.

Anderson County sheriff’s deputies are now searching for a suspect in Wednesday’s incident at the Corner Stop at 5630 U.S. 76, according to an incident report. They got the call at 7:53 p.m., the report states.

Befekadu, 54, said he’s a father of three who works 18 hours a day.

He said the gunman got away with money in the July incident but not on Wednesday.

The gunman in Wednesday’s robbery wore a ski mask and was 30-40 years old, according to the incident report. In July, two men between 19 and 23 years old, including one wearing a bandana, were listed as the suspects, according to an incident report.

Two people were arrested in the July incident, but it’s too early to know whether one of them was involved in Wednesday’s robbery, said Susann Griffin, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office.

– GreenvilleOnline.com

By Justin Lafferty | SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

SPRING VALLEY, CALIFORNIA – A lottery usually leads people to riches. For Monte Vista High cross country runner Misikir Mentose, a lottery led him to America.

In 2003, Mentose’s father, Ermias Wontamo, entered the U.S. State Department’s Diversity Visa Lottery and the family was approved for passage from Ethiopia to the United States.

“Really, I didn’t want to leave,” Mentose said. “I had to. I knew people that won the lottery in America, though. A lot of people come here to better their lives.”

Mentose and his family lived in Awassa, one of the largest cities in Ethiopia. Wontamo and his wife, Aster Gabore, wanted Mentose to receive his education in the United States. Wontamo and Gabore graduated from Ethiopian colleges, but their degrees don’t carry the same clout as those earned in America.

After 22 hours on a plane and a layover in New York City, Mentose and his family arrived in San Diego and met their sponsor.

“We expected it was going to be hard for a while, until we got settled,” Mentose said. “But we were prepared, so it wasn’t that bad.”

Mentose, a lifelong soccer player, was not immediately attracted to running. A friend, Muluken Beressa, also from Ethiopia, was a standout cross country runner for Monte Vista. Joining the team was a way to spend time with a fellow countryman, who now runs for Mesa College.

At first, Mentose wasn’t too serious about the sport, but his dedication grew. Mentose, a senior, is now a key runner for the Monarchs, who are ranked fifth heading into next week’s San Diego Section championships.

“It didn’t seem like he had much interest in his freshman year, but he matured in the spring and during track season, something just sparked,” Monarchs coach Bob Muschek said. “It was a nice turnaround.”

Muschek praised Mentose’s devotion to the team, a quality he saw in Beressa. Mentose has been an inspirational leader for his teammates, who have soaked up his Ethiopian culture.

Before a race last season at Valhalla, the Monarchs made a mark on their foreheads, mimicking a scar that Mentose jokes he received during a fight with a cheetah as a child. Monte Vista won the race, and Mentose made a strong case for captaincy.

“He’s not really a vocal leader, but when he says something, you pay attention,” senior teammate Mark Wassmer said. “He’s a really humble kid. During workouts, when you see him going hard, you know that you have to go hard.

“He does everything for the team. Last year, when he went to state (to compete as an individual), he really wanted the team to go with him.”

Mentose has told teammates about an Ethiopian runner’s secret – teff, a grain native to his country that he believes makes people run faster. Mentose said he will share some teff with the rest of the Monarchs later this season. First, they must reach a goal that Mentose would not reveal.

“I told them about it,” Mentose said. “But they have to earn something to get it.”

By Howard Kurtz | Washington Post

When a CBS correspondent reported last month that Barack Obama’s campaign had a malodorous airplane and a dismissive attitude toward the media, Robert Gibbs, the candidate’s top spokesman, was not pleased.

“Robert wrote a rather tendentious note to me,” Dean Reynolds says. “He would get in your face, not in a very heated way, but he would question your stories.”

Gibbs, who transition officials say is in line to become White House press secretary, can be funny, gossipy and an invaluable source of information about his boss, journalists say. He also monitors coverage intensively, pushing back against the smallest blog post he considers inaccurate.

“This is not someone who stays above the fray,” Newsweek reporter Richard Wolffe says. “His manner allows him to do tough stuff in a softer way. He could deliver a harsh message, but do it with a little sense of humor, so you’d feel punched in the stomach but not in the face.”

Asked about complaints that he retaliated against reporters who were deemed unfair, Gibbs invokes the pressure of the campaign. “In hindsight, there are discussions I had in the heat of the moment that if I had to do over again, you would do differently,” he says. “I don’t doubt there’s countless episodes you would go back and do over again. I think you do better when you treat people with respect. There were a couple of times that I flew off the handle.”

Now the sparring will take place in the glare of televised briefings. After a career spent working for Democratic candidates and lawmakers, the 37-year-old Alabama native is about to become the public face of the Obama administration.

While he can be combative in private, Gibbs is affable and smooth-talking on camera, often deflecting uncomfortable questions with a quip. Colleagues say Gibbs channels the president-elect in a way that goes beyond their shared passion for college football. Obama had an initial tendency to overanswer questions, but Gibbs has taught him how to pivot back to his scripted point.

“He’s the last person Barack talks to when he’s thinking about how to handle reporters’ questions,” says Linda Douglass, a campaign spokeswoman. “We call him the Barack Whisperer. He completely understands his thinking and knows how Barack wants to come across.”

That quality was not lost on journalists covering the highly disciplined campaign. “A huge asset that Robert has is that he’s in the room with the president-elect,” says Jake Tapper, ABC’s senior White House correspondent. “He has his trust and his ear. He’s not just a press flunky who gets handed a piece of paper with talking points.”

Gibbs lives in Alexandria with his wife, Mary Catherine, a lawyer, and their 5-year-old son, Ethan. He has spent little time at home since hitting the campaign trail, but is grateful that his son has a relationship with Obama, who was photographed last month giving Ethan a fist-bump at Dulles airport.

The son of two Auburn University librarians, Gibbs got his first exposure to politics when his mother took him to voter registration drives. A political science major at North Carolina State University, Gibbs was also a goalie for the Wolfpack soccer team, though he admits that his playing time amounted to less than 45 minutes.

In 1991, while still a college student, Gibbs landed an internship with an Alabama congressman, Glen Browder, and later joined his staff. “Robert was good at talking,” Browder says. “We always kidded that he’d end up with his own TV or radio talk show, but he was also substantive.”

By 1998, Gibbs was the campaign spokesman for Sen. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina and two years later for the successful Senate campaign of Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow. It was in that role that Gibbs caught the eye of Jim Jordan, who hired him for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

“He’s one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known, which has really been a bonding point with Obama,” Jordan says. “They love the game.” Gibbs has “a strong personality,” and “all the skills of a good flack. He knew how to move a negative story.”

When Jordan was running John Kerry’s presidential campaign, he brought Gibbs along, but the spokesman quit in protest when Jordan was dumped in the fall of 2003. Gibbs drew flak when he joined a group called Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values, which aired a commercial using a picture of Osama bin Laden in attacking a Kerry presidential rival, Howard Dean, for his lack of foreign policy experience. Gibbs said the group was independent and was trying to raise important issues.

After a period of unemployment, Gibbs got a call from longtime Obama adviser David Axelrod, inviting him to join the Democrat’s 2004 Senate campaign. Gibbs knew little about the Illinois lawmaker, but at their initial meeting, he says, “I found him remarkably easy to talk to.”

When sexual allegations about Obama’s Republican rival, Jack Ryan, became public, Gibbs urged Obama to steer clear of the controversy and not to return reporters’ calls, according to the book “Obama: From Promise to Power.” Ryan soon dropped out.

After two years as Obama’s Senate spokesman, Gibbs was the natural choice to be communications director of the fledgling presidential bid. In the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, CBS’s Reynolds says, Gibbs would walk up and ask if he needed anything.

“He became less and less helpful as Obama got more and more successful,” Reynolds says. “His stature became more elevated than just schmoozing the press. He became a strategist, an insider. The more he knew about what was going on, the less he was willing to spill the beans.”

Gibbs says there is a natural tension — especially on campaigns marked by “sleeplessness and over-caffeinated interactions” — between the media’s demand for access and the strategists’ insistence on driving a message. As a campaign strategist, “you’re putting forth a series of images and values,” he says. “You want the country to understand who a particular person is, what they stand for and what makes them tick.”

Several reporters say Gibbs shared extra tidbits with favored correspondents and froze out others who criticized Obama, refusing to return calls or e-mails for weeks. Shouting matches were not uncommon, say these reporters, who did not want to be quoted criticizing an official they have to deal with, and Gibbs sometimes went over their heads and complained to their bosses.

Last spring, when Newsweek ran a cover portraying Obama as the elitist “arugula” candidate, followed weeks later by a cover story in which editor Evan Thomas wrote Obama an open memo on dealing with race, the campaign suddenly stopped cooperating with the magazine’s quadrennial book project, which requires behind-the-scenes access. Thomas had to fly to Detroit and try to assuage Gibbs during a campaign flight before access was restored.

“I thought the Obama campaign was overreacting to those two covers,” Thomas says. “They thought we were overly concerned with race.” In light of the election, “maybe they were right.”

Journalistic resentment boiled over in June when reporters were trapped on the plane as it took off from Washington without Obama, with Gibbs saying only that the candidate had “scheduled some meetings.” Not until the flight landed in Chicago did Gibbs acknowledge that Obama had been secretly huddling with his defeated rival, Hillary Clinton.

In September, Charles Hurt, the New York Post’s Washington bureau chief, was barred from the campaign plane after writing in a column that Obama “simply doesn’t care if we win or lose the war in Iraq.” Hurt declined to be interviewed.

Gibbs calls the charge “as irresponsible a line as I’ve read in this country in years.” As for the other incidents, he says Reynolds, in his CBS blog post about the campaign’s shortcomings, “hurt the feelings” of his staff and made complaints that the newsman had not raised in person. Gibbs says he limited Newsweek’s access for pushing what he regarded as a false narrative that Obama could not connect with working-class voters.

Gibbs’s aggressive side was on public display last month when he went toe-to-toe with Sean Hannity, castigating the Fox News host for building a program around an activist who accused Obama of having trained years ago for “a radical overthrow of the government.” Over Hannity’s objections, Gibbs read a list of comments by the activist, Andy Martin, that included once calling a judge a “slimy Jew.”

“I find those comments despicable,” Hannity said.

“But you put him on your show,” Gibbs shot back. Fox executives later admitted that the booking had been a mistake.

Gibbs says he was trying to hammer home that it was “completely unacceptable” to give Martin a platform. But, he allows, “it was probably more fun than it should have been.”

The incident provided a revealing glimpse of Gibbs’s style. “I love dealing with reporters,” he says. “Anybody who does this has to like a little of the back-and-forth.”