Retarded boy seeking US asylum is jailed, abused

By Alan Elsner, National Correspondent

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - In January 2001, Malik Jarno, a 16-year-old
orphan from Guinea in West Africa who is mentally retarded, arrived in the
United States seeking sanctuary from a conflict in which much of his family
died.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service locked him away in an adult
prison. He had no lawyer until fellow inmates got him help through an
immigrant support group and he did not see an immigration judge for nine
months.

He was abused by fellow inmates with whom he could not communicate. He was
held in solitary confinement for a week and on one occasion pepper sprayed
and severely beaten by guards.

The authorities, who are treating Jarno as an adult despite his birth
certificate which states he was born on Jan. 7, 1985, are trying to deport
him and have offered his lawyers no explanation for his treatment. A
spokeswoman told Reuters the agency cannot comment on individual cases.

Each year the INS holds in custody about 5,000 unaccompanied children caught
trying to enter the United States without papers. Human rights advocates say
many are often held in prison for months where they can suffer abuse.

"I can't understand why there is so little compassion," said lawyer Claudia
O'Brien of the Washington law firm Latham & Watkins, which is now
representing Jarno on a pro bono basis.

"The government is spending a lot of resources fighting this child who has
nobody left in the world and would almost certainly die if he is deported.
His treatment does seem to me to be malicious," she said.

The INS has come under heavy criticism in the last year for inefficiency and
the administration of President George W. Bush has promised reforms.

MENTALLY RETARDED

Right now, Jarno is being held at Rappahannock Regional Jail in Virginia, the
third adult prison in which he has been housed. In a telephone interview with
Reuters, he was unable to pronounce the name of the prison.

"I am in Baranack. I am in a cell with two other prisoners. I sleep on the
floor on a mattress. Nobody here speaks French. I have trouble understanding
the guards," he said in French.

Jarno, who speaks Puhlar, a West African language, and basic French, was
examined in February by a psychologist hired by his lawyers who concluded
that he suffers from moderate mental retardation and "very delayed
intellectual functioning." His IQ is approximately 47, placing him in the
bottom 0.1 percent of those tested.

The psychologist also concluded that Jarno was incapable of inventing a
sophisticated story about himself and sticking to it. His account of his life
has been consistent each time he has told it.

Jarno was classified an adult on the basis of highly controversial dental and
wrist X-rays used by the INS to determine age. These techniques are
discredited by many experts, who say they are highly inaccurate.

"BREATHTAKING MISUSE OF X-RAYS"

"I find it breathtaking that someone could be so wrong about the biologic
concept and draw conclusions from this serious misinterpretation that have a
profound impact on the life and welfare of another human being," said Nalton
Ferraro, a dental surgeon at Children's Hospital in Boston who is also on the
faculty of Harvard University.

INS Commissioner James Ziglar said recently the agency was reviewing its use
of dental X-rays to determine age. Under bipartisan legislation being
discussed by the U.S. Senate, the agency would no longer be allowed to rely
solely on X-rays to determine the age of minors.

The INS examined Jarno's birth certificate and said it had not been altered
or tampered with. But the agency said it did not have a similar document in
its reference files and therefore could not authenticate it.

While in prison, Jarno who is small and slightly built, complained of being
beaten by Spanish-speaking prisoners. In one incident last Oct. 31,
corroborated by several fellow inmates in written statements, he was
pepper-sprayed by guards trying to subdue another prisoner and then held down
and beaten by several guards without provocation.

Detainee Kopandru Singo wrote in a statement: "They jumped on the little boy.
At least six persons I could see pushed him, twisted his arms, held his legs,
put him on the wall and pressed and then on the floor. It was so horrible I
turned my eyes away."

Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights wrote complaining about this incident to
the head of the INS detention and deportation section on Feb. 19 but received
no response.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

When Jarno's lawyers produced his birth certificate, prison authorities
locked him in solitary confinement with a card on the door of his cell
reading, "Juvenile."

While in solitary, he had to provide guards with written requests for
permission to telephone his lawyers or even to take a shower, despite the
fact that he can barely write in Puhlar and not at all in English or French.
After a week, his lawyers managed to get him transferred back to the cell
block.

INS spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar said the INS used "administrative
segregation" when needed to protect prisoners who are a danger to others or
themselves.

Jarno's mother died when he was about 12. His father was an Imam and local
community leader in Guinea who was jailed in 1998 and died in prison. His
brother disappeared and is presumed dead. He fled to France with an aunt who
abandoned him and was taken care of for a while by a Moroccan friend.

When the friend decided to return to Morocco, he acquired a fake passport for
Jarno and bought him a ticket to the United States. The friend told him he
would be taken care of in America because "it is the land of freedom."

14:41 03-19-02

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