questions asked of an activist from Burma

The Asylum Officer asked: "what is your address? do you really live there? what is your cell phone number? why is the area code from far away? do you really live there? who do you live with? what is her immigration status?

when did you leave your country? when did you last arrive in USA? today, where is your mother? father? brother #1? Brother #2? sister #1 lives in Singapore? what is her status there?
Show me your passport! when was it issued? when did USA give you a visa? where else in the world did you travel? why can't you get status in one of those countries? how did you get the passport? was it hard to get? you paid a bribe? how much?

why are you seeking asylum? why did you leave your country? what was your plan at that time? at that time, what was your knowledge of the USA and the rules for applying for asylum? if you did not know, then you could not form a plan, correct?

were you harmed in Burma? did you suffer physical harm? emotional harm? economic harm?
Were you a member of any organization in Burma? what job did father do in Burma? sisters? brothers?

how did you find out about the protests in USA? who sponsored the protests? weren't you worried about government spies at the protests? So, why protest then? why did your friend take photos of you at the protest? can't photos be used against you? did you see a man inside the Embassy taking photos? why did he take photos? you say you fear your Government; but, you protest. Isn't that a contradiction?

how did the government find out about your sister, and that she was disloyal? did sister write a letter? are her details consistent with your details?
The more details you write down, the more you must be able to repeat!

more Cameroon questions

The Asylum Officer asked: "you were arrested three times? when was the first time? what were you doing at the moment of your arrest? were you standing in the road, holding a large sign? were you sitting inside a room, inside the school, during a meeting? what happened? did the soldier say anything? what language did he speak? did he touch you? did you grab your shoulder with both of his hands? or did he just point his rifle at you, and tell you to get into truck? why did he arrest you? how do you know?

where did he take you? inside the prison, did anyone talk to you? in what languages? what did guard #1 say? did he have any weapons? did he touch you? how? where? he hit you on your head, with his baton? did you see any blood? where did you see blood? on your hands? sleeves? shirt? pants? on the ground? what happened to you, personally? how were you injured? do not worry about others; tell me about yourself. did anything else happen? did you suffer any more physcial injuries? did you hear any threats? did you suffer emotional distress? what thoughts went through your mind, when the guard said he would kill you? did you believe him? why?

what questions did they ask you, inside the prison? did they want to know who planned the demonstration? did they ask when the next demonstration would be?

how were you released? how did your father know that you were inside the prison? where did you go after being released from prison? did you go to the hospital? why not? because you were not injured that much? because you had no money for a hospital?

do you have any scars? do you have any photos of scars? I see a scar on your right forearm. where did that scar come from? do you have any scars not caused by the bad guys?

you say you were arrested in 1999 and in 2001? but you told Dr. Smith you were arrested in 2002? did you read the letter that Dr. Smith wrote? why are you inconsistent? it is your own story, and you cannot even tell it twice in a row in the same way?

Cameroon: pro-democracy activist

The Asylum Officer asked: "show me your passport!" Let's look at each page. when was it issued? when did you get visa from US Embassy? when did you last leave your country? when did you enter USA? Oh, you lived in a third country? what was your immigration status there? can you live there now? if you can live there now, you do not need asylum here in USA, correct?

Tell me about each of your brothers and sisters: where do they live, how did they suffer? how come you suffered harm, but they did not?

why are you applying for asylum? why do you fear your government? why is your government angry at you? what is your political opinion? does your government know you have that opinion? how do you know, that they know?

were you a member of any organizations in your country? what is the SCNC? what does it stand for? what is its platform? what are its goals? who is the Chair of the SCNC in your country? when did you join? why? what were your activities? what did you do as a member? you sat in a chair in a room and listened to other people talk? you talked yourself, and discussed future options? you asked people to donate funds? you distributed literature? you handed out pamphlets to people on the sidewalks and streets/

why did you protest in front of the Embassy here in Washington DC? what else did you do here in USA? you stood in front of embassy, and held a large sign? you chanted slogans? in what languages? what did you chant in English? what did you chant in French?

are you presently a member of any organizations here in USA?

more questions to DRC activist

The government lawyer asked: when was your last contact with your husband? last contact with your son? you say the warrant was faxed to you? where is the original? why wasn't it mailed to us?

You left your country in July 2005? you went to another country? why not stay there? what was your status there? why not seek asylum there? in the last 10 years, has that country granted asylum to even one person from your country?

before you left your country, you were planning to come to the USA? you were planning to live where? with whom? what was your intent? what was your knowledge of asylum laws in USA? upon arrival, did anyone tell you that you could apply for asylum? how long was your airplane ride from Paris France to Dulles airport? when you got off of the airplane, how did you feel? tired? did you stand in a long line?

Questions asked of the witness: born where? your status in USA? the last time you were in the old country was when? you first met the applicant when? what did she tell you about her problems?

activist from Congo-Kinshasa

The government lawyer asked: tell me about your passport: when was it issued; how was it issued? if your government hates you, why does it do something nice for you, such as giving you a passport? you say the police department in the Northwest section of Kinshasa detained you, and that they think you are disloyal? did that department send information about you to the Immigration Department in the Southeast section of Kinshasa? Mr. Smith, in a building in southeast Kinshasa, issued you a passport? did he receive information from the police in northwest? did the police send info to the Immigration Department? if they did, was that information passed on to Mr. Smith? If not, then, Smith did not know? In other words, one department of the government does not know what happened in the other department? in the USA, if Mr. Jones does a crime in New York, does the Immigration Office in Fairfax VA know about it? if information is missing or incomplete in the USA, are there even more problems in the Congo?

AO asked an activist from Burma

What is your full name? Did you ever used any other names? What is your telephone number? Why do you have a FL area code while you live in NY? How long have you lived in NY? You have been here for 6 yrs and you still have FL code? Maybe you dont really live in NY? For the last 6 yrs you lived in NY, doesnt it bother you to have a FL area code? So when you make calls in NY, its like you are making long distance calls? What is your current address? Who do you live with? What is your friend's name? What is your friend's status? Your date of birth? What is your ethnic group? What is your religion? What type of Buddhism is your religion? When did you last arrive in the US? Arrived as a crew? Marital status? Any children? Where did you live in Burma before you came to the US? What was the last school you attended in Burma? Studied what? Where? For how long? Are you working now? Where? What kind of work? Mother's name? Father's name? How many brothers and sisters? All living in Burma? All born in Mon State? Why did you leave Burma in 2001? How did you get your passport? Any harm or threat before you left Burma? Have you ever been a member of any organization? Is anyone in your family ever harmed or threatened by anyone? What did your father do? What kind of merchant? Your brothers and sisters, what kind of work? Your mother? When did you arrive in Miami? Why you decided not to return to Burma? Why did you decide to apply for asylum? Why would the government of Burma care that you protested? Why do you think the government will arrest you? When did you start protesting? Why? Over the years you were here, many reports about political protesters were arrested and in jail, many human rights violations and you did not get upset, why in 2007, you got upset all of a sudden? Why did this upset you than other times? Why did it upset you about monks but not students or other pro-democractic activist? Why not about Aung San Suu Kyi? So what did you do in response to that? You have a computer at home? What program did you use to download vidoe files? What was your plan with the video cd? What were your intentions to do with it? Dont you think your family know that? When did you make the vcd? How did you send vcd to Burma? Did you put your name and address on it? What note? How is your nephew going to make vidoe copies? Military Intelligence in Burma is very strict, how was your cousin going to make copies? How did he get cd copied? you sent 100 empty cds there? How did you get it through custom? How could you have gotten 100 empty cd throughj Burma without problems? Why would you put your nephew in trouble? Did you ever go to any organization here in the US and asked them to help you? Thats not my question. Why put your nephew in trouble? sent him cds and told him to make copies and distributed them to friends, why would you risk your nephew's life? Why would you do that to a family member? Why did you go to a Burmese organization here in the US for help? If you were that interested in anti-government demonstration, why not contact an organization here in the US, insted of putting a family member in trouble? Was your nephew ever politcally active in Burma? So he has been active? How did you find out about the demonstrations you participated in here? Who sponsored these demonstrations? Are you worried about government spies when you demonstrated? If you didnt know who are government spies, why went there? You said earlier you worried about government spies, why went and protested there now? If you didnt care about spies or your life, why did you go and ask help from Burmese organizations here in the US instead of putting your nephew's life in trouble? You just said you didnt care if they arrested or kill you? You took pictures of your protest? Who took your pictures? Why allow friends to take your pictures when these could be used against you? What is the purpose of taking pictures? How do you know government employee took your picture? Earlier you said you worried about getting arrestedm you worried about government know what you are doing, you worried about govenrment spies and yet you kept going back to protest? Contradicting yourself here? On one hand you said you were worried about your government, yet you keep going there? Explain why? You have a copy of the cd youmade? you labeled birthday photos on the cd? How many cds did you mail to Burma? What happened after you sent the cd to Burma? When did this happen? Where is nephew today? In your statement you said Insein prison? How did you know that? When did sister write letter? What did she write? How did you know nephew have equipment to do vcd? Anyone know how MI found out? When did MI go to sister's house? When was the next visit? U said it was a week after nephew was arrested? What happened then? What did sister say to MI? When did you find out about this? If all these happened in January, why didnt sister mention it in her first letter? Sister's letter in February mentioned nephew's arrest, why didnt sister mention it in her first letter in January? Why just mentioned it later in second letter in Feb? Did you call sister after you received her letter? How did she mail letter to you if she was so watched by MI? Any other letters or calls from Burma after March? What's in letter April 16th? Anything else? You mentioned earlier he was in Insein prison on page 5 of I-589, now you are saying, you dont know where he is at? The cd has photos not video? Anything else?