The U.S. and suspected CIA "black sites" Extraordinary renditions allegedly have been carried out from these countries Detainees have allegedly been transported through these countries Detainees have allegedly arrived in these countries Sources: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch / Wikimedia Commons
In July 2021, Nigerians woke up to the news that Nnamdi Kanu, leader of a banned separatist movement known as Indigenous People of Biafra, had been arrested and brought to the capital Abuja.
Kanu , who also holds UK citizenship, fled Nigeria in 2017 while out on bail facing charges of terrorism and incitement. He had reportedly been living in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, since his escape.
How did he end up paraded in handcuffs in Abuja? According to his family, Kanu was a victim of extraordinary rendition — they say he was kidnapped in Nairobi by Nigerian authorities.
Let me quote from a Ghanaian newspaper report :
"Kanu had arrived in Kenya and settled down in a house. On June 19, 2021, he drove himself in a car to the international airport to meet a person arriving in the country for a high-level IPOB meeting.
"He drove into the underground parking lot at the airport and was arrested before exiting the car.
"He was taken to a house and brutalised for 8 days while the Nigerian authorities perfected how to forcefully relocate him to Nigeria
"He was travelling on a British passport, not a Nigerian passport as alleged by Malami. He was brought into Nigeria on a Saturday and arraigned on Monday.
"Buhari upon learning of his abduction decided to cancel his trip to the UK to manage the diplomatic fallouts at home instead of going to London.
"Kanu was interrogated in the presence of his lawyers in the DSS office in Abuja. The Nigerian government didn’t get his passport, laptop, and three major phones.
"He was taken out of Kenya without passing through immigration."
The reason why I mention this story now, firstly, is that Kanu this week filed suit in a Nigerian court for 52bn Naira (around R1,8 billion) against the Federal Government.
More crucially for me, it ties in with the idea that extraordinary renditions have gone mainstream.
The term was once the exclusive purview of the United States government. An Open Society Foundation report in 2013 titled " Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition ", lists 136 such detainees. Most of the recipients of such treatment, judging from their names, are Muslims, captured under the overarching banner of the "war on terror". Against that backdrop, Julian Assange might consider himself lucky.
Far more scary, for me at any rate, is the list of countries that have cooperated with the US in such endeavours:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zimbabwe.
Here's the entry on South Africa:
South Africa was implicated in the March 2003 extraordinary rendition of Saud Memon, a Pakistani national and suspect in the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl.1449 In light of the secrecy associated with the abduction and the lack of any record in South Africa of his deportation or extradition, it appears that South Africa gave U.S. intelligence agencies “carte blanche” to pursue his abduction and rendition from South Africa.1450 Investigators at Human Rights Watch believed he was held in CIA custody and then transferred to Pakistani intelligence agents.1451 See the detainee list in Section IV.
It has also been alleged by the lawyer for Pakistani national Khalid Rashid that the South African government was involved in Rashid’s “rendition” in October 2005 from South Africa to Pakistan, and that Rashid may have been handed over to U.S. agents.1452 However, it is not clear that the CIA was involved in this case. In 2005, the South African Department of Home Affairs admitted to transferring Khalid Rashid to “Pakistani authorities who travelled to South Africa to receive him.”1453 The South African minister of home affairs claimed that Rashid was ar- rested and deported because he resided in the country illegally.1454 Rashid was flown from South Africa in a Gulfstream II owned by AVE, a company registered in Kyrgyzstan; the charter was arranged by the government of Pakistan.1455 In 2009, the Supreme Court of Appeal of the Republic of South Africa found that Rashid’s detention at the Cullinan Police Station without a warrant, his removal from that facility without a warrant, and his deportation to Pakistan were unlawful.1456 The court noted in its judgment that Rashid had been released in December 2007.1457
There are no other known judicial cases or investigations relating to South Africa’s participation in CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations.
Until now, such actions on the part of other governments were lumped into the category " Extraterritorial abduction " including the likes of China, Czechoslovakia, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Vietnam. (Israel, famously, abducted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina in 1960).
Anyhow, the thought that came to mind today was that Russia is notably absent from these lists.
I suspect given Putin's obsession with reciprocity, this might change.
