Togolese Activist Fights Deportation

An activist who claims she will be tortured and possibly killed if she returns to her native West Africa is fighting a deportation effort by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Ablavi Haden is seeking protection under the international Convention Against Torture. Haden, 47, told the Dallas Morning News that Togolese officials in 1991 killed her husband, a Togolese official who believed other government officials were stealing public money for private use. Haden, a leader in Togo’s women’s rights and democracy movements, said she fears a similar fate. But INS officials say her fears are unfounded and have kept the mother of five locked up in a Dallas County jail since March.