Audio Finding asylum in Minnesota (story audio) Photos Koffi Gozo escaped Togo Attorney Tom Basting, Jr. helped Gozo win asylum Gozo's employer Joel Luedtke Resources Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights Amnesty International CIA facts on Togo Respond to this story Talk about this story in the MPR News Forum Submit a commentary Help us cover this story

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Finding asylum in Minnesota
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
November 25, 2004

Koffi Gozo was arrested in his African homeland for refusing to join the majority political party (MPR photo/Dan Olson)

Census numbers show the number of immigrants to Minnesota has declined since September 11, 2001. However a very small component -- the number of people seeking political asylum -- has rebounded. People who win political asylum in the United States are seeking sanctuary from violent regimes in their homeland. The asylum granted a man now living in Minnesota saved his life. Now he's waiting for word that his wife and son can join him.

St. Paul, Minn. — Koffi Gozo knew his government dealt violently with peaceful protest. Years ago during a protest he heard the gunshots right outside his front door.

"A lot of people (were) dead and in front of my house there was shooting," he says.

	Attorney Tom Basting, Jr. helped Gozo win asylum

Koffi Gozo, 29, is from Togo. The small, landlocked West African nation is about the size of West Virginia. It's neighbor is oil rich Nigeria. Togo has been ruled by the same man for 37 years. He overthrew the previous government in a military coup and demands total loyalty from Togo residents. When the leader hears complaints he unleashes his troops and their guns.

About the peaceful protest turned violent Gozo recalls, "All of us, we run to our house and we spent the whole night under the bed."

Koffi Gozo has been in the United States nearly four years. He had to leave Togo in a hurry. He worked for the government-owned telephone company. One day, one of his supervisors told him he had to join the country's dominant political party.

Gozo refused. He was already a member of an opposition party legally approved by the government. He says he couldn't support the majority party because he didn't agree with the government practices they condoned. He says Togo's government was arresting, torturing and murdering people. He recalls seeing the bodies as he drove by the big lake next to Togo's capital city.

"You see a dead body on the bottom of the lake and that's what they do every damn day," Gozo says.

Amnesty International says a climate of terror pervades Togo. The London-based human rights group documented the l991 massacre of 28 people whose bodies were dumped in the lake.

	Gozo's employer Joel Luedtke

In l993 it documented Togolese troops killing 20 peaceful protesters.

Then in l998, Amnesty International reported the execution of hundreds during the presidential election. In the election two years ago, the incumbent president changed the constitution removing a provision that prevented him from serving another term. He also changed the election rules so his main opponent was disqualified.

Koffi Gozo says a government official told him his refusal to join the majority party was a mistake.

"It's going to be very, very dangerous for my life and for my job; that was the first reaction I received from them," he says.

Not long after that a car driven by military personnel pulled up in front of where Gozo was living. The driver said the colonel at the local military base needed his help with a telephone problem. Gozo says he didn't suspect anything was wrong because as a telephone company worker he handled the military-base account. However, when he arrived at the base his equipment was taken away and he was led to a cell.

Gozo asked, 'Where was the colonel?'

"The captain replied to me back that he is the one who asks questions and I was supposed to answer. Do not even try to ask any questions," Gozo says.

Gozo says he knew he was in trouble.

"Seriously, at this point I thought I was a dead man," he says.

Gozo pauses. It's as though a deep shadow is crossing his face. He looks troubled and draws a breath as he recounts what happened next.

"Two days without food. The first day they make me kneel down the whole day and when they was going to take me to the gate I walk on my knees," he says.

Gozo declines to describe the interrogation.

"It was a very, very horrible situation that time. I'm trying to not remember that situation because it was very a black part of my life," he says.

Amnesty International has documented Togo's military and police use whips and electric shock in the interrogation of people they detain.

Friends and family noticed Gozo's absence and demanded and won his release.

They realized instantly he had to leave the country. He got a visa to travel to the United States. He learned later Togolese authorities came looking for him just after he left.

Koffi Gozo knew no one in the United States when he arrived four years ago and his main foreign language was French, not English.

He landed in Washington, D.C., traveled to Nebraska and found his way to Minnesota.

He began attending St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis. People there directed him to a social worker who spoke French. She connected him with Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. The private, non-profit agency works with hundreds of people escaping persecution in their homelands.

Minnesota Advocates recruited an attorney, Tom Basting Jr., to help Gozo. Basting is an attorney for Briggs and Morgan. His usual area of practice is land use issues - sorting out questions about gravel pits or landfills.

However, Briggs and Morgan and other law firms contribute countless hours of free legal advice to people seeking asylum. Last year more than 42,000 people from abroad sought political asylum in the United States, and only 25,000 were granted the status. Basting says winning political asylum is a complicated process that requires proof the person applying is credible.

"Political asylum is not for economic purposes, it's for people who fear persecution in their home country or death in their home country," he says.

Gozo won asylum and is safe, but huge questions loom. He can stay and work in the United States, but a year ago the federal government put a limit on the number of people who can begin the process of becoming a citizen. Gozo won't be eligible for at least 12 years.

Then there's the matter of his wife and 10-year-old son. Gozo says they are in Ghana, a country next to Togo, trying to win permission to join him in the United States. Gozo declines to give details but he says his parents and his wife have also been persecuted.

Gozo's employer is Joel Luedtke, the director of refugee services for the Minnesota Council of Churches. He's confident the family will be reunited. The United States, Luedtke says, continues to be a beacon of hope for people experiencing persecution in other countries.

"We still continue to welcome more persecuted people as refugees than any other country in the world," he says.

Koffi Gozo says he hopes to be reunited with his family by Christmas.

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