Two representatives of the famous NGO, with valid papers, were expelled in quick succession, Sunday and Monday. One of them reacts to our microphone, and the Djiboutian government also delivers an explanation.
FIDH explains that a program officer, in possession of a valid visa, was refused entry to the territory at the airport on Sunday 12 March. She was arrested and forcibly loaded onto a plane. The next day, FIDH Vice-President Alexis Deswaef, present in the country for two days, was in turn arrested at his hotel. His notes, phone and SIM cards were confiscated and he was also expelled from the country without explanation. The Belgian lawyer was carrying out a mission on the state of human rights in the country.
” It’s quite a challenging and traumatic experience, especially since you’re there, legally, with the authorization of the authorities, reacts for RFI Alexis Deswaef. It was precisely, this is what is completely paradoxical, a mission to come and see how local civil society is harassed by the police, is the subject of arrests, and I saw it myself. This mission proved by the absurd the problem of this authoritarian drift of power which obviously has absolutely nothing to do with an international mission for the defense of human rights. I haven’t received any reasons for my expulsion, so it’s total arbitrariness. »
For the purposes of his mission, he had met members of civil society, as well as leaders of opposition parties. It is this last meeting which seems to have posed a problem for the authorities of Djibouti, according to the spokesman of the presidential majority Daoud Houmed.
“ We have absolutely no problem for FIDH to stay in Djibouti, but if they strictly respect the mission for which they are staying in Djibouti. However, it turned out that they were deviating from the initial trajectory. They never told us that they were coming to support, support the opposition, the MRD or political parties in general, otherwise we would not have issued them the visa. You are not unaware that the FIDH has an a priori, the proof of this is that on reading the press release from this organization, they reproach us for having hosted foreign bases so you can see that it absolutely does not respond to their mission. »
But Alexis Deswaef is not getting angry: “ To act in this way, one can only ask: what do they have to hide at this point? In all of this, there is a role for the international community that is not commensurate with the challenges. I find in particular that France is not reacting, probably for defense and geostrategic interests, and the same remark applies to the Americans, the Italians, even the Chinese who have a military base in Djibouti. »