INTERVIEW: Canadian journalist recounts days leading to expulsion from Sudan

By Wasil Ali

February 8, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – Sudanese national security forces expelled a Canadian-Egyptian journalist, Heba Aly, just days after she made an inquiry about domestic arms production.

Aly, a freelance reporter for several news organizations including the Bloomberg News; IRIN, the UN humanitarian news service; Public Radio International; and the Christian Science Monitor worked in Sudan since June 2008.

Speaking with Sudan Tribune, Aly recounted the difficulties she experienced as a foreign journalist and the fears she felt in the days leading up to her expulsion.

In one incident in which she was detained by security forces, Aly said, “I felt alone, helpless. Then I began to understand what Sudanese people go through every day.”

While freedom of press is guaranteed under Sudan’s constitution, some journalists say they face daily censorship and harassment; Sudanese authorities last November arrested over 70 journalists who demonstrated outside the national parliament to protest against press censorship.

Aly, who entered and exited Sudan several times during her stay, was permitted to make a brief visit in September to parts of the vast war-torn Darfur region, although security forces attempted to destroy all the photos she had taken.

Sudan’s security service released a statement to Reuters saying Aly had been “practicing activities outside her assignment which harm Sudan National Security”.

Action had also been taken against her for “her violation of passport and immigration regulations”, it said.

Canada’s Foreign Ministry condemned the expulsion of the journalist, calling attention to Sudan’s human rights record.

The US embassy in Khartoum also issued a statement deploring the decision by Sudanese authorities and describing as “infringement by the Government of Sudan upon freedom of the press and expression”

Accompanied through the airport by national security officials, the 25-year old journalist departed from Khartoum to Cairo last Monday.

Below is the full text of the interview.

ST: When did you first arrive in Sudan and what was your purpose?

Aly: I arrived in Sudan June 23 on a Canadian passport. I had explained to the Sudanese embassy in Ottawa that I wanted to visit Sudan for 1.5 months as a journalist and they granted me a tourist visa.

ST: Upon your arrival did you submit any paperwork that allows you to work as journalist during your visit?

Aly: I went to the Ministry of Information’s Foreign Journalists Department with letters from the various news outlets to which I would be sending reports. The department issued me a press card, lasting one month. This is typical procedure for visiting journalists. The press card allowed me to conduct interviews, record sound and take pictures. My press card was lost when my wallet was stolen in mid-July, and the department issued me a second one July 23 lasting two months.

ST: But at that point your stay was meant to be only temporary?

Aly: At some time in July or August, I took a decision to stay in Sudan on a more permanent basis. I began inquiring on what the procedure was for a long-term stay. I was told I had to make a request to open a correspondent’s office at the National Press Council. Once they gave me authorization, I would take it to the Foreign Journalists Department at the Ministry of Information. They would write a letter. Then I would take that letter to the Ministry of Immigration and get a residency permit. And finally, I would take that permit to the Ministry of Labor to get a work permit. This was my understanding. I was also told that as an Egyptian, I could enter Sudan without a visa and wouldn’t need residency, which would make life a lot easier.

ST: Do you carry an Egyptian passport?

Aly: At the end of August, I took a vacation to Egypt where I visited family and used it as a chance to get my Egyptian passport made. I returned to Sudan in mid-September on my Egyptian passport, without a visa.

ST: What did you do upon your return?

Aly: My press card was near expiration, and the Foreign Journalists Department issued me a new one on Sept. 20, lasting until Dec. 31, 2008. At the end of September, I traveled to Darfur on a government-issued travel permit. When I arrived, I requested further permission from national security to travel outside of the state capital, El-Fasher. I was granted permission to travel to various areas that had recently been bombed (only the government has aircraft) and in which battles had taken place between rebel and government forces. I photographed craters in the ground where bombs had fallen, military gunship helicopters flying over towns, and a house that had been burned to the ground. In early October, I left Darfur. On my way out of the El-Fasher airport, I was pulled aside and taken to a side room. Security officials searched all of my things – my laptop, recorders, camera, notebooks, phones, etc. A female security officer physically body-searched me as well. They detained me for about two hours and deleted all the pictures from my camera (which luckily were backed up on my computer). Then they let me return to Khartoum. I got calls after that once every few weeks from one of the national security officers who had searched my things “just saying hi” – a gentle reminder that they were still watching me.

ST: At that stage what was the status of your request to adjust your journalistic status to a permanent one?

Aly: I don’t know the date I first submitted a letter to open a correspondent’s office, because it was written by hand on the spot, in the presence of an employee of the Foreign Journalists Department. The Press Council was confused by the concept of a freelance journalist. They wanted a specific agency in whose name I would open the office. On October 14, I wrote a typed letter following up with the director of the National Press Council providing him with a list of the news agencies I worked with, copies of signed agreements I had with them and my contact information.

ST: Did they approve it?

Aly: I continuously called the employee at the Foreign Journalists Department who was my liaison with the Press Council to see if progress had been made. He continually told me, “I haven’t heard anything. I’ll call them tomorrow.” When I felt that he was slacking, I visited the Press Council alone in November. An administrator said she would look into the situation and call me back. Before leaving for a vacation to Canada, I called her back. She said the Press Council was closed. I did not understand why. The Foreign Journalists Department employee assured me that as soon as I got back in January, the whole thing could be processed in one week.

ST: When did you leave for Canada?

Aly: I was scheduled to leave Khartoum for Canada on Dec. 2. Just as I was walked through the front doors of the airport, I heard my name being called by a man who had clearly been waiting for me to arrive. He asked me to follow him to a back room. He sat down next to another man, and they asked for my passport. I handed them the Egyptian one I was flying with. They looked at it, and looked at each other. “Maybe it’s not her.” Then they asked if I had any other passport. I handed them the Canadian one. They seemed relieved, like they had gotten the right person after all. Again, all my things were searched.

ST: What reason did they give for stopping you at the airport?

Aly: First they said it was because I hadn’t registered my passport. I told them as an Egyptian, I didn’t have to. Then they said it was because I didn’t have a work permit. I explained that I had followed all the proper procedures and was waiting for a response. I called the employee from the ministry’s Foreign Journalists Department and he explained the situation to them. Then they said they just wanted to ensure I was doing good work. Later, they said it was routine, that they were simply trying to protect their country. I could hear them listening to interviews I had conducted and discussing pictures I had taken. They began copying files from my laptop onto a USB memory stick. I couldn’t see what they were copying and had no idea if it was work material or personal files. I use my laptop both professionally and personally. They had access to family pictures, financial information, even my diary. When they came across a password, they required me to enter it.

ST: How long were you kept at the airport?

Aly: They detained me for close to two hours – so long that I missed my flight home. After the airline’s check-in counter turned me away, they took me back to their office to study my laptop further. They left me in one room with one official while they examined my things in another.

ST: How did you feel at that point?

Aly: The first time I was stopped by national security in Darfur, it was a shock I was unprepared for. But when, upon it happening a second time, I reacted just as badly – in fact worse – I had to stop and think about it.

ST: Why was the experience so unsettling?

Aly: I have since realized that it is the loss of power, the loss of freedom, the loss of control over your own life – that’s what hit me deep inside my core. I thought about my options. I could refuse to do what they said. That would get me nowhere when they control everything. I felt alone, helpless. Then I began to understand what Sudanese people go through everyday. Imagine what it is like to live in a society where you can be detained at anytime arbitrarily. A society where if somebody decides to lock you in a room and delete your hard drive, there’s nothing you can do about it. It is a horrible, horrible feeling.

ST: So what happened next at the airport?

Aly: More than an hour later, they booked me on a flight the next day and let me go home. I flew the following day without problems. I returned to Sudan Jan. 8. I feared I would have more problems and had asked a Sudanese friend to be there to pick me up. He must have pulled some strings because he had arranged for me to arrive as a VIP, through a separate entrance, where I bypassed the normal customs line. All my papers were taken care of for me. I had no problems.

ST: Did you make another attempt to follow up on your permanent press credentials?

Aly: Within days, I returned to the National Press Council, with the Foreign Journalists Department employee, to finalize my documents. I was told, again, that the Press Council was closed until February (at the earliest), while awaiting the government to pass a new press law. I asked them to write a letter simply explaining that I had made a request for my papers and was awaiting the Press Council to re-open. They refused. I said to the Foreign Journalists Department employee, “So does this mean I can’t work for the next month?” He said, “No, it’s not a big deal. You can continue, more or less.” But when I asked him for a new press card, he said he would have to wait until the work permit was finalized. And when I requested a travel permit to Kordofan, in central Sudan, I got the same answer.

ST: Don’t you think it is somewhat normal for foreign correspondents in Sudan to go through so much red tape?

Aly: I asked other international journalist colleagues if they were having trouble getting papers processed. They seemed surprised, and said the Press Council was issuing letters for them as usual. I then asked someone that I trusted in government. He said my name had come up in meetings at the Ministry of Information a few times. He said there was no problem with my papers, and that he didn’t understand why they weren’t processing the permit. He said he would look into it.

ST: So what really triggered the expulsion in your opinion?

Aly: I had come across a website called the Military Industry Corporation (http://mic.sd/english/mainen.html). It is a Sudanese corporation that produces arms for domestic defense use. It was in English, very professional and organized, with details and pictures about the different weapons produced. Most importantly, it was publicly available on the internet for the whole world to see. I thought it would make an interesting story, given Sudan used to import large quantities of its arms and was now – according to the corporation – self-sufficient. In fact, I was later told that Sudan is the second largest arms-manufacturer in Sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa. I contribute to a financial news agency that is interested in business and industry, so in my eyes, it was certainly a newsworthy story – possibly even a positive story on Sudan’s progress in developing its industries. Granted, given the arms embargo, it would have been controversial, but that has always been part of journalists’ work.

I called the numbers on the website and spoke to someone in the corporation’s public information division. I asked to come meet them and see their work. They didn’t get back to me for a few weeks. I called again, and they accepted. We set up a meeting for Thursday Jan. 29. Once I arrived, they told me they were not interested in disclosing any more information than what was on their website. I tried to push them a little – I asked what the production was and how much of a budget they had to work with. Their answers were vague. I gave them my card and told them to give me a call if they ever wanted to say more. We left each other on friendly terms.

ST: When did national security get involved?

Aly: Two days later, Sat. Jan. 31, I received a call at 9:30am from someone identifying himself as Mohamed Salem from national security. He said, “When we stopped you in December at the airport, we told you that we wanted to ensure you were doing good work. Now you come back and ask about the arms industry. We want to meet with you.”

I met them at a restaurant one hour later. They were waiting for me in a car and called my name when I arrived. They were two of the same men who had stopped me at the Khartoum airport in December, and we recognized each other. They said it was too crowded where we were and instead took me in their car to another quieter restaurant nearby. I was uncomfortable getting into a car alone with two men, but did not have the confidence to argue with them, especially given my experiences at the airports in El-Fasher and Khartoum. When we arrived – over a glass of orange juice – they asked me why I was asking about arms. I explained to them that I had seen the public website and thought it would make a good story. I said I hadn’t realized that it would be an issue, and now that I did, I would drop the story. They said they wanted me to leave the country.

ST: How did you react to that?

Aly: I explained that I was trying to do good, balanced work in Sudan, and that I was trying to show a different side of the country to the outside world. They said they had no problem with my work; if they did, they would have arrested me when they stopped me earlier. But asking about arms was unacceptable, they said. They told me I had Saturday and Sunday to sort things out. And if their boss hadn’t changed his mind by end of day Sunday, I would have to prove that I had changed my ticket home. “Go to Egypt; go to Canada; we don’t care. Just leave.”

They said they also wanted my passports so that they could prove to their boss they had done their jobs. I tried to convince them otherwise. They said, “You give us your passports, or we take you straight to the airport now.” I didn’t want them to know where I lived, so I told them I would bring them the passports. They insisted on driving me to pick them up. I didn’t give them any directions to my home, but they knew exactly where it was.

I gave them the passports and they left. They never showed me a badge, and I was later told by someone in government that national security did not employ anybody by the name of Mohamed Salem.

ST: Did you proceed to make arrangements for your departure?

Aly: The next day, Sunday, I called to clarify the exact date they wanted me to leave. I said I wouldn’t be able to leave before Tuesday since my travel agent was in Canada (Sunday is a work day in Sudan, but a weekend in Canada) and I wouldn’t be able to reach her until late Monday afternoon, due to the 8-hour time difference.. We agreed I would depart on Tuesday.

The same day, I went to see the person in government that was trying to solve the problem for me. He advised me that it was better for my own safety for me to leave, even if they permitted me to stay. He said if I wasn’t gone within a few days, they would arrest me. He said he would continue to work on the case in my absence, and that hopefully I could return with a proper work permit and everything would be fine.

Then I went to the Canadian embassy to report what had happened and that I was no longer in possession of my passports.

ST: How did you retrieve your passports from Sudanese security?

Aly: Later that night, “Mohamed Salem” called again with a notably more aggressive tone. Every time I saw his number on the call display, my stomach clenched. He asked why I had “run off” to my embassy. Without me saying so, he also knew that I had gone to see the government official. He told me I had to leave Monday instead of Tuesday. I asked for something in writing explaining that I was being asked to leave and the reason why. He said they would be telling my embassy that I had to leave because I didn’t have a work permit.

Monday morning I bought a flight to Cairo for Monday evening. I called “Mohamed Salem”, told him my flight time and asked how I would retrieve my passports. He said he would return to my home and take me to the airport himself.

ST: Did you agree to him taking you to the airport?

Aly: By this point I was quite simply afraid and weary of another unpredictable meeting, alone, with national security. I called the Canadian Consul and requested that he take me to the airport and be present when I met “Mohamed Salem” again. Once within the Canadian embassy walls, I informed “Mohamed Salem” that I had already left my home and I would prefer to meet him at the airport. He agreed. The Consul witnessed him return my passports to me. Then, as a group of national security officials huddled in a small circle watching me – less hands-on than usual in the presence of the Consul – I went about checking in. I again asked them for a written expulsion order. They refused. They said they would give their message to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which would communicate with the Canadian embassy or the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry in Canada.

The Consul accompanied me as far as he could go, just before the immigration checkpoint. From there, a national security official followed me all the way though the airport, through every checkpoint. He sat next to me for an hour and a half in the departure waiting room before following me onto the airport shuttle bus. Then he watched from the tarmac as I boarded the plane.

The next day, safely in Egypt with family, my Sudanese phone rang. It was “Mohammed Salem”. I didn’t answer.

(ST)