Abou Sambia v. Michael Mukasey

Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided January 26, 2009·No. 08-3168·Unpublished

Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 09a0058n.06

Filed: January 26, 2009

No. 08-3168

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

ABOU SAMBIA, )

)

Petitioner, ) ON APPEAL FROM THE BOARD ) OF IMMIGRATION APPEALS v. )

)

MICHAEL B. MUKASEY, Attorney General, )

)

Respondent. )

)

BEFORE: COLE and COOK, Circuit Judges; EDMUNDS,* District Judge EDMUNDS, District Judge. Petitioner Abou Sambia seeks review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), affirming the Immigration Judge’s (IJ) denial of his application for asylum under section 208(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(1), withholding of removal under section 241(b)(3) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, and asylum on humanitarian grounds under 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13(b)(1)(iii)(A). Because substantial evidence supports the BIA’s decision, we DENY the petition for review.

I.

*

The Honorable Nancy G. Edmunds, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, sitting by designation.

Sambia is a native and citizen of the Central African Republic and a member of the Bororo ethnic group. He arrived in Memphis, Tennessee on September 29, 2002 and applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture on December 16. He claims that he suffered past persecution in the Central African Republic because of his political activity and will suffer future persecution or torture if required to return.

A. Asylum Application 1. Sambia’s Experience Sambia is a farmer, herder, and owner of a shop that he rents out. In 1992, he became an active member of the political party, Rassemblement Democratique Centrafrican (RDC), led by former President Andre Kolingba. Sambia educated herders and farmers living in the countryside about the RDC and conveyed their concerns to party officials. He also encouraged the Bororo community to vote for Kolingba in the 1993 presidential election. Many Bororo did so as a result of Sambia’s efforts, but Kolingba lost the election to Ange-Felix Patasse.

On July 20, 2001, Sambia arrived home to find gendarmes waiting for him. The officers accused Sambia of having guns and distributing them to people in the countryside. Sambia denied the accusation and consented to a search of his home. The officers handcuffed Sambia while they searched for weapons. When they did not find any, they took him to the station where a member of Patasse’s party told the gendarmes to use any means necessary to get Sambia to “tell the truth.” Sambia was accused of supporting the rebels as a member of the RDC and was imprisoned without a proceeding. Sambia reports that he was interrogated and beaten every two days during his detention, was denied adequate food, and was ordered to bury prisoners who died in jail. On

December 24, 2001, gendarmes informed Sambia that they had expelled his wife and children from their home and destroyed his house, and that he would be killed by January.

On December 31, prison guards who were members of Sambia’s ethnic group helped him escape. Sambia fled to Chad the next day, where he lived without permission of the Chadian government. His wife and five children eventually joined him there. Sambia was unable to work in Chad and did not apply for refuge there because of the tension between Chad and the Central African Republic. Upon hearing reports that Chad was returning refugees to the Central African Republic, Sambia traveled to Cameroon and then to Senegal with a smuggler. He eventually flew to the United States, arriving in New York on September 10, 2002.

2. Events in the Central African Republic Sambia’s application also includes the 2002 and 2003 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in the Central African Republic.1 These provide the following useful background for understanding Sambia’s testimony, as well as information about events following Sambia’s departure.

In 1999, Ange-Feliz Patasse, leader of the MLPC party, was re-elected to another six-year term. On May 28, 2001, Andre Kolingba organized an unsuccessful coup against the Patasse government. According to Sambia, the Patasse government began arbitrarily arresting RDC members in the aftermath of the attempted coup. Its security forces “engaged in military reprisals, open executions, [and] the elimination of suspected rebel sympathizers, particularly members of the Yakoma ethnic group.” Thousands of people fled the country, including Kolingba. Patasse

1 The Court recognizes that these reports are now five years old. If circumstances have changed in the country since the BIA decision, the appropriate remedy is to file a motion to reopen removal proceedings pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(3).

suspended the activities of the RDC from June to December 2001. In October of 2001, Patasse removed General Francois Bozize from his position as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces upon suspicion of his complicity in the coup attempt. Bozize fled to Chad. On August 26, 2002, Kolingba and 22 others were sentenced to death in absentia. Most displaced persons, including the deputy of the RDC, returned home in 2002.

On October 25, 2002, General Bozize directed an attempted coup from abroad, but Patasse retained power. Bozize’s forces killed numerous civilians during the coup attempt.2 On March 15, 2003, following a six-month rebellion, General Bozize overthrew the Patasse government in a military coup and declared himself President. Bozize appointed a transitional cabinet with members of all political parties and civil society. He also ordered military and security forces suspected of human rights abuses to disband. Bozize shared power with the NTC, a legislative body comprised of 96 representatives from all political parties.

On April 23, 2003, President Bozize granted amnesty to 800 people convicted of involvement in the 2001 coup attempt, including Andre Kolingba. Bozize encouraged thousands of exiles, including Kolingba and members of Kolingba’s Yakoma ethnic group, to return. There were no reports that these people experienced government harassment upon their return. Six months later, the Bozize government held “a national reconciliation dialogue . . . intended to end years of armed conflict, coups, and ethnic rivalries” at which representatives of “different political, social, religious, and professional affiliations, adopted recommendations to be implemented by a government committee.”

2 In 2002, Patasse’s presidency continued to be marked by human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, extra-judicial killings, and “government-tolerated executions of suspected bandits.”

There were no reports of political killings by security forces or that Bozize prevented any political parties from operating in 2003, but there were reports of warrantless home searches, extrajudicial killing by security forces, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture of suspects by police.

B. Removal Proceedings and IJ Decision Sambia’s case was referred to an IJ, who issued a Notice to Appear on March 20, 2003. At a June 4, 2003 hearing, Sambia conceded removability and renewed his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. The hearing was continued until February 16, 2005.

At the February 16 hearing, the IJ noted, and Sambia’s counsel agreed, that Sambia “seek[s]

asylum based upon mistreatment that he suffered at the hands of a government that is now out of power.” The IJ questioned Sambia about Bozize’s April 2003 amnesty:

Q. If Patasse is out of power and Bozize is in power and Bozize is encouraging Kolingba and his followers to return to the Central African Republic, why is it not safe for you to return to the Central African Republic?

A. I know Bozize how he is. He was the first one who initiated a coup against Kolingba with (indiscernable). They were the first one who did a coup to give the power to Patasse. And this was in ‘82.

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