How Do You Find The Truth When a Civil War is Raging?
Notes From the Field
So, we heard from the court in Sicily regarding the fate of Measho Tesfamariam, the man who we hope can throw some light on serious questions about the Ghost Boat. His sentencing won’t happen until December 22, which means our interview with him can’t happen until after that. So we’re waiting, and assembling questions: Please tell us if you have any suggestions.
Meanwhile, the security situation in Libya is pretty dire right now. There is essentially a civil war taking place between the collapsed government and more than 1,700 armed groups and militias — pushed further along by what a recent U.N. briefing said were the “increasing activities of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), as well as Ansar al-Sharia and other Al-Qaida affiliates in Libya.” As a result, we are working with local journalists to explore reports from the ground, interview people with knowledge of the refugee situation, and understand what might have happened to the Ghost Boat passengers.
Despite the struggle we’ve been finding some interesting leads in Libya, but each piece of the puzzle requires serious double checking. These are delicate moments; one wrong step, or one piece of false information made public, could endanger the project — and even the people we’re looking for.
In the meantime, we have a simple request: That you share story of Ghost Boat with those you know.
Over the next couple of weeks, lots of people will have time for reading and reflection. If we can get them on board too, we’ll be stronger.
This Just In
On Friday, as part of International Migrants Day, Eric Reidy wrote this piece for Tunisia Live which uses this project as a way to explore the situation of refugees in the North African nation.
In particular, he tells the worrying story of a Cameroonian woman called Clara:
Instead of letting her go, the smugglers took her, and the rest of the group, captive; holding them in a house Sidi Mansour, north of Sfax, torturing and starving them, while trying to extort the extra money.
Clara got lucky. After about a month in captivity, she was able to sneak a phone call to her brother. Her brother contacted the Embassy of Cameroon in Tunisia who called the smuggler on a phone number she provided and secured her release. But the other people she was being held with, Algerians, Syrians and Moroccans, were left behind.
You may also be interested in a haunting story from Kulsoom Rizvi and the International Rescue Committee called “Are We Going To Die Today?” In it, a number of Syrian children share the questions they ask. (follow their publication, Uprooted, for more stories.)
Morsels
Episode 8 is out now in Italian — “Il fatto è che non tutte le vite umane hanno la stessa importanza” — thanks to the talents of Monica Cainarca.
Readers R. Larkin Taylor-Parker wonders what other Tokhla survivors can tell us — after all “Refugees from other boats have no incentive to be dishonest and may feel a lot of sympathy for the people on the Ghost Boat and their loved ones.” David Phares agrees, but considers the complications, including that “there is no official record of who was sailing on a refugee boat at that time.”
True, this does make it a little bit of a crap shoot, so we’ve been doing what we can to identify others who made similar passage. Meron Estefanos and Eric discussed the story on the Paris-based station for Eritreans, Radio Erena — widely listened to among the diaspora.
In any case, we continue towards the truth.
Onwards.
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