France: Ex-Interior minister "ignorant" of deportee's death
01 September 1998
Shortly after the resignation of the Belgian Interior Minister, because of the death of Semira Adamu (see news feature, page 1), the former French Interior minister, Phillipe Marchand, gave an interview to Le Monde about the death of a Tamil asylum-seeker following an attempted deportation in 1991.
Arumum Sivasampu Esan died of heart failure in a Paris hospital after losing consciousness as he struggled to resist deportation. He had arrived in France in August 1991, seeking asylum. His claim was immediately rejected. The first attempt to deport him was aborted when the captain of the plane ordered his disembarkation after a prolonged struggle between Esan and immigration officials.
A week later a second attempt at deportation was made. Esan was handcuffed with his hands behind his back and his ankles were cuffed together. Initially, his mouth was covered with a velcro gag. When he appeared to have calmed down, this was removed. Esan then began again to struggle and shout, so the officials tied him very tightly to his seat, binding him with a blanket around the thorax. After struggling hard against this, Esan suddenly lost consciousness. Doctors in the Robert-Ballanger hospital were unable to revive him and he died of heart failure.
These events took place only weeks after the cabinet of Prime Minister Edith Cresson had stated that all deportations were to be carried out with dignity and the Prime Minister herself had reiterated her commitment to the 1951 Geneva Convention.
No formal inquiry into Esan's death was ordered and, according to Marchand, there was no formal report to the Interior Ministry, as the cause of death was identified as a straight-forward cardiac arrest resulting from existing weakness in the heart. Judicial investigations only began following the instigation of a civil action by Gilles Piquois, for Esan's widow. So far there have been no indictments of the officials responsible and there was no reconstruction of the events until April this year.
The reconstruction has given rise to a revision of medical opinion on the case. Experts now believe that compression on the brain due to the way in which Esan was bound whilst in a state of extreme agitation may have been the determining factor in the cause of death.
In the light of these findings, the Interior Ministry has announced its intention to set out rules on deportations in writing. Currently regulations exist, but not in writing. This ambiguity appears to have resulted in widespread flouting of the regulations. Officers are told, for example, that they may bind wrists and ankles, but must not touch the mouth. The deportee must be able to move during take-off and landing, and no tranquilisers are to be administered. Marchand admitted that he had been made unofficially aware that tranquilisers, known as the PAF-cocktail, [Police de l'air et des Frontieres] were frequently used.
As recently as September 11th, a Tamil woman was mistreated during the enforcement of a deportation order. The Tamil paper Virakesari reports that her mouth was covered with a large sticking plaster and that she was dragged by the hair when she tried to resist boarding.
Le Monde 2.10.98; Guardian 11.7.91