Vienneau (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} vienneau) wrote,@ 2007-04-22 10:59:00 |
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| Current mood: |  worried |
| Current music: | Gerard McMann - "Cry Little Sister" |
| Entry tags: | jacqueline nicole vienneau missing syria |
My Sister, Nicole Vienneau, Has Gone Missing in Syria
Summary
My sister, Jacqueline "Nicole" Vienneau, a Canadian tourist, disappeared in Syria on Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at the age of 32. She was in her fifth month of a six-month solo adventure through West Africa and the Middle East. She was last seen by the desk clerk at 8:30 in the morning as she left the Cairo Hotel in Hama, two hours north of Damascus.
She definitely intended to return to the hotel as her backpack was left in her room along with the memory cards from her camera, full of photos. She also left her journals that include an entry made the night before she disappeared. Canadian police retrieved her Hotmail account email records indicating she attempted to login around 8:30 Friday night but was unable to (Syrian Internet connections are not reliable). Her last completed emails were sent Thursday night.
Nicole's guidebook was also left in her room. In the back of her Lonely Planet "Middle East" guidebook she wrote directions to a number of places in Syria that we believe she copied from the Cairo Hotel's copy of the Lonely Planet "Syria" guidebook. Nicole spoke with some guests about these locations earlier in the week and the hotel clerk indicated that on the morning she disappeared, she asked for directions to the "Beehive Houses", a local sightseeing destination, as well as Qasr Ibn Wardan (a nearby castle).
No one at these locations recalls seeing Nicole (and they are not heavily visited) and the Qasr Ibn Wardan logbook has a record of only one visitor, Amin Ben Yahia, a person of interest to us (b. 1984, Algerian/Swiss nationality, father is Abbas, mother is Monica) in hopes that he remembers something unusual about that day.
Nicole preferred taking local transit, but none of the minibus drivers or locals remembers seeing her. As a foreigner, Nicole stood out in all of Syria, but particularly in Hama where the majority of women in Hama dress in robes and cover their hair. The streets from the hotel to the minibus pick-up are main streets with lots of people, even at 8:30 in the morning.
In May 2007, I flew to Syria with Nicole's fiancé Gary to re-trace her steps and meet with police and local officials. Gary spent an additional two months criss-crossing Syria searching for clues. My mother joined Gary in Syria in July 2007 and met with the Grand Mufti as well as the Minister of the Interior. She also made a personal plea on Syrian television and we put ads in the newspapers and local flyers. Gary and my mother returned to Syria in April 2008 to raise awareness and follow up on leads with officials and the police.
My mother returned to Syria with Gary for a third visit in March 2009 and we continue to work with Syrian government and police officials on the investigation.
There is up to 2,250,000 Syrian pounds ($45,000) in reward money for information leading us to Nicole.
We are currently looking for other guests at the Cairo Hotel in case they spoke with Nicole. A list is at the bottom of this page.
For pictures of Nicole and what she was wearing when she disappeared, as well as relevant personal information and summaries of the search so far, please visit:
http://www.findnicolevienneau.com/
From the "official" website, you can also submit anonymous tips, make donations towards the search, view the picture gallery and download posters and Nicole's notes. Arabic versions of most pages are also available. Public comments can be made here to the blog.
You can always email me directly and anonymously at mattv99@hotmail.com
All comments and emails, public and private, are read immediately, but unfortunately I cannot respond to everyone. Feel free to respond in any language that you're comfortable with, though all of my responses will likely be in English.
December 20th (Noon):
Now that Amanda Lindhout is back in Canada more details are emerging on what happened and some are quite notable. First, they hired ransom "specialists" at a rate of $3,000 a day to assist with freeing Amanda because the government is not only not trained in that stuff, their official advice is to do nothing and not pay a ransom. We haven't spoken too much about the specialists we've hired over the past few years, but I can confirm the daily rate as about average. This is why it's so expensive to do these searches, and we don't face a ransom demand (if only!) We can also confirm that the government does not have specialists trained in retrieving missing people or navigating foreign legal systems.
Second, this Toronto Star article details how Amanda's family and home town kept everything secret, particularly the fundraising, so that the kidnappers didn't raise the ransom demands. Our approach to finding Nicole has been a mix of secrecy and openness, but once again that's because we aren't facing a ransom situation. There are a number of items that we have not released yet because it would hurt the search, but there are many more items that we never would have learned or discovered without the help of all the volunteers who have learned of our search and tried to help.
Speaking of volunteers, in the past few weeks I've had someone in Jordan contact me and ask for posters to put up and give to a friend heading to Damascus. I've also had someone looking at the Cairo Hotel guest list and trying to find one of the last few guests we have not spoken with. A third contact, a Syrian who is currently in North America, has provided an insider's view on which newspapers are relevant (and cheap) in Hama, should we need to raise public awareness again. Back in 2007 we paid a substantial sum to get ads into the newspapers, but since we weren't in Syria at the time, we never really knew if they were published and where they were published.
Google alerts directed me to this page a few weeks ago. This page bothers me a lot because at the top it implies that by donating to the website, you'll help find Nicole. But the website has no affiliation with our search and no funds are directed towards the search. I believe it's a clearinghouse for missing person information, and my mother put our search on the site. The site may do good work, but I don't like how it markets itself. If you want to donate $150 to find Nicole, please use the official website and it will go directly towards our bills for international search specialists.
As a result of some specialist work, we have been able to rule out a lead involving a substantial amount of cash being paid to the Cairo Hotel desk clerk allowing him to start his own business soon after Nicole went missing. The source of the funds has been determined and it is unlikely to have been a payment for Nicole. I am very happy we were able to tie up this loose end.
December 6th (Evening) - Nicole's 35th Birthday:
(Posted by my mother)
Today is Nicole’s 35th birthday.
It is unbelievable that this is now the 3rd birthday to pass since we last heard from her. At first we counted the number of days that she had been missing, then that turned into the number of months. Now it is coming up to 3 years. It feels like an eternity.
Once again I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for everything they have done to support the family in trying to find Nicole. As time passes, I appreciate more and more just how important that support has been. As with any traumatic event, it takes a while for reality to set in and until it does, you are just going through the motions of living.
Unfortunately, we still do not know what has happened. Despite the time that has passed we remain hopeful. As more than one Syrian authority has assured us, the fact that nothing has been found is an indication that she is still alive. If she had met a tragic end, they claim they would have found her by now.
We have made some progress this past year. After 2 years of repeatedly asking, we were finally allowed to take our private investigators into Syria; however, they were not allowed to ‘investigate’. They could only observe and advise us, but even that was helpful. We were also able to tie up another loose end. There was a possibility that she had been trafficked to North Africa. Just this month we have been able determine that this was not the case. However, it does not mean that she wasn’t trafficked to other parts, e.g. Dubai. Trying to get at the truth has been such a painfully slow process. We’ve learned that nothing, nothing at all, happens quickly in the Middle East.
Not a day goes by without thoughts of Nicole filling my mind. At first the most painful were those of what was suppose to be. She had just moved in with Gary and they had their whole lives ahead of them. She had just turned 32 and had at least another 50 years of life and adventurers. We had plans for future trips with them, to travel up and down the west coast. And the list goes on. Now the pain is in not knowing. Not knowing whether she is still alive. Not knowing what has happened. Not knowing when we might get some closure. It is just so sad.
I always told her that no matter how grown up she got, that since she was the only daughter I had, she would always be ‘my little girl’. I miss my little girl.
So again Nicole, wherever you are, Happy Birthday Sweetheart.
Love you forever, Mom
November 29th (Noon):
A few weeks ago my mother visited the Syrian Embassy in Ottawa again. You need a visa to enter Syria so mom refreshes it every six months in case she needs to suddenly fly over. While at the Embassy, she also met with the Syrian Ambassador to Canada. While such meetings are satisfying in that you can share your frustrations, they do not tend to lead to anything. Still no new word from Syria or the Canadian government.
Speaking of the Canadian government, we have had many heated discussions with the Freedom of Information people – the people who are supposed to be protecting our rights to get our own information. They are several months behind in providing the result of our FOI request (but now that it is four months late it's being treated as a “priority”) and it is extremely frustrating. Needless to say, should we find new information or leads in those notes (once we eventually get them), we will not stay quiet about the delays.
The recent release of Amanda Lindhout in Somalia gives some hope that this could have a happy ending, though that is a much different situation. Of note to me was the comment that the federal government didn't want to be involved. Right from the Prime Minister's office the message came down to stay away from the situation. That may be due to the ransom demands and Canadian policy to never pay ransoms. It may also have to do with the recent wave of Canadians being selectively abandoned abroad and not wanting to open up the issue again. We certainly feel abandoned in this past year.
A reader recently sent me this CNN story on Ani Ashekian. Ani is a Canadian who went missing in Hong Kong about a year ago. Just like Nicole's disappearance, she was at a budget hotel, everything was normal, and the next day she disappeared and there are no clues or evidence. The family didn't realize she was missing for several weeks as well. What is notable about this link is that it's CNN – we have had absolutely no success in interesting the American media in Nicole's disappearance. I'm still not entirely clear how they pulled it off, though I presume the backing of the American mystery author (watch the story to see what I'm talking about) may have helped.
Tomorrow marks the fifth anniversary of my father's death. He was a high profile reporter in Ottawa. When he died, Stephen Harper stood up and spoke of him in Parliament. I continue to wonder how different this search might have been had he still been alive. I suspect we may still not have found anything, but I think the government may have helped us look a bit harder.
On a more positive (and slightly off-topic) note, my other sister is visiting this weekend and it is always a pleasure to spend time with her. It was good to catch up on things and we enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather here in Toronto.
November 17th (Evening):
The search for 17-year old Mariam Makhniashvili right here in my Toronto neighbourhood continues to intensify. The police have not only started interviewing all the students at the school, they are also going door to door and visiting 6,000 people in nearby houses, apartments and condos. In addition to that they've combed through over two dozen local library computers AND have rummaged through the garbage deposited at the dump in case their search panicked anyone into discarding valuable evidence.
Did I mention they were scouring local parks with helicopters and infrared sensors?
*THIS* is the kind of activity we wanted to see in Syria. We shouldn't have had to pay to put this search into the news, the search itself should have been news for the people of Hama and Damascus. If the police and government really cared about tourists and the safety of women travelling in Syria, they would put forth these kinds of efforts. No excuses, no single detective wandering around talking to people. Real police work and real effort. And then if we can't find Nicole? Well at least we did what we could and can walk away without guilt.
Much like Nicole, Mariam disappeared into thin air with no witnesses or evidence. Which just goes to show that it's not something that just happens in Syria. The lack of results has me wondering if it's like our search - at first we concentrated on where we expected Nicole to be the day she disappeared, travelling to Ibn Wardan - but then as that proved fruitless, we came to realize that she probably never left the hotel, or that something else happened (offered a ride, change of plans) that we've missed. And just like us, the passage of two months makes evidence gathering that much more difficult. I'm watching this case very closely.
A family friend noticed another travel article on Syria and sent it our way. This article is particularly upsetting since it specifically refers to the Cairo Hotel and how safe it is in Syria. To be fair, it's safer than I expect most people think, but one shouldn't blindly visit without knowing the risks. Nicole knew the risks, which is why we're so surprised that she disappeared without any clues or uproar.
A reporter from the Toronto Star contacted me a few weeks ago. She interviewed me back in 2007 and now that she was in the Middle East, she wanted to follow up. I appreciate the media folks who keep tabs on their stories like this. For now we don't have too much new news to report, but hopefully we will one day.
November 1st (Evening):
One of Syria's goals these days (and pretty much every other country in the world) is to increase tourism. As such, every time my mom reads articles like this one extolling the virtues of Syria, she wants to contact the writer and clarify that it's not necessarily as safe as you think, and if something goes wrong, not too much may be done about it.
The article link was sent by a reader who also wrote to the editor of the Guardian (the newspaper that published it) saying that a bit more balance to the reporting would be good (though travel articles aren't generally all that objective and are mostly funded by the place being visited). It may help to have people contact the Guardian, if only because our search hasn't had any exposure in the United Kingdom.
And it does get us wondering how much this affects our search. When the (former) Minister of Justice says Nicole is just "having an adventure" two years after she disappeared, it's tough to think that he isn't concerned about his country's image. Quite frankly, I think the best thing for the image of Syria would be to find Nicole and show that while problems happen anywhere, you're in good care in Syria. It worries me that maybe they can't do that because finding Nicole exposes a wider web of deceit and corruption.
Speaking of two years, Nicole left on her trip exactly three years ago today. She is now two and half years late.
A friend of Nicole's pointed out that the latest version of the Lonely Planet (3rd 2008) for Syria no longer recommends the Citadel Hotel in Palmyra, where Nicole stayed. But it's hard to tell if that's because the place has gotten worse, or because the writer of the second edition that Nicole was using just wasn't very good (it appears he/she may not have done as thorough a job as one would like, especially looking at the errors and so on that we found).
October 14th (Evening):
A few months ago my mom submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Canadian government for all the documents they had on Nicole. As I may have mentioned before, a key document had gone missing between Syria and Canada and so we wanted to make sure there weren't any more that we hadn't seen. The government insisted we submit a formal request for the information.
This past week the government got back to my mom and said they can't release information relating to me, or Gary or anyone else in the family involved unless we each give our explicit written consent. So each of us had to hurriedly mail a letter to Ottawa giving approval. An incredibly frustrating process.
Here in Toronto the backpack of the missing 17-year old girl was found and the police immediately set up a command post nearby so they can talk to all the people in the area and search for clues. This is exactly what should have happened in Syria when Nicole went missing, let alone when we reported her missing a month later. But instead we were assigned a single detective from the local force. Is it any surprise that she hasn't been found?
A devoted volunteer reviewed all the blog entries and mentioned a point from way back - the Cairo Hotel reported Nicole missing on April 2nd and the "political police" (there are a half dozen or so different types of police in Syria, similar to FBI, local police, CIA in the States) investigated and apparently decided it wasn't a political disappearance by April 6th or 8th.
Notwithstanding the *incredible* frustration of the political police investigating but not telling the Canadian Embassy, it struck our volunteer as odd that the Syrians were able to "clear" Nicole so quickly. This is someone who has been travelling and meeting people for the past five months, including a few days in neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan, and they checked it all out that quickly?
It's possible that they just verified she'd been to the typical tourist spots and hadn't been noted by anyone, but if they have all these kind of information, why did it take so long for them to even verify whether she was still in the country when we came looking for her? There seem to be gaps in this story, but I don't know if that's because our information is wrong, our understanding of how things work is wrong, or if there's something being hidden in Syria. I sure would like to find out though.
My mother sent another letter to the First Lady - President Al-Assad's wife. She responded to our first two letters and we're hopeful that this keeps up awareness of the search for Nicole.
Google Alerts sends me an email whenever it links to a new page mentioning Nicole. A few weeks ago it found this "Forensic Astrology" page. It's unusual in that a lot of effort has apparently gone into the page, but we've heard nothing (that I'm aware of) from the author. It's entertaining, but unfortunately does not quite fit the facts as we know them.
My brother came home for the long weekend and seems to be doing okay despite eating only soft foods. The scar on his jaw isn't noticeable and the second scar is inside his mouth. We'll have to see what kind of long term effects the injury will have.
September 27th (Evening):
A 17-year old girl, Mariam Makhniashvili, has gone missing right here in Toronto, roughly in my neighbourhood. Apparently while just outside her school she disappeared. No leads at all, police are perplexed. Case is complicated by the family history - she moved here from Russia just three months ago where she'd been living with her grandparents while her parents worked in Los Angeles. Last person to see her was her brother who says that he went in the back of the school while she went in the front.
I have lots of theories on what could have happened - years of developing theories about Nicole expands the mind that way. You have to look closely at the family and the last person who saw her. You also have to check people she knew back in Russia - did she just runaway to be back with her friends or a boyfriend? She's also new to the country and possibly easy to mislead. Was she abducted by someone?
This leads me to a book I'm currently reading as part of the search for Nicole - The Natashas: Inside The New Global Sex Trade by Victor Malarek, a Canadian author. It was written in 2003 and details some chilling stories about women from Russia being lured to other countries (often by other women, some of whom are trying to buy their own freedom) and sold into sexual slavery from which they have a lot of trouble escaping. I've read a lot of books on crime recently and they all end up leaving me very depressed about corruption and violence in the world.
We continue to hope that Nicole has not been captured and sent somewhere as a sex slave, the details of which I'll avoid mentioning (needless to say, it is likely much worse than you're thinking). It is the one viable scenario that has her still alive, but I just can't imagine this much time would have passed without any clues or contact - Nicole is canny and a fighter, she would find a way (the book describes women who borrow cell phones from "johns" to call home and tell people where they are).
Syria is a source of women for sex trafficking - commonly Iraqi refugees with few options. We continue to hope/believe that no one would be brazen enough to grab a foreign tourist. That being said, we have some evidence that leads us to consider the option. The hotel clerk that last saw Nicole left the Cairo Hotel soon after Nicole disappeared and started a business, supposedly with money recently given to him by a woman he knew. The nature of their relationship, and the identity of the woman, is a mystery to us. One would think the police would follow this lead as much as possible, but they do not appear to be getting too far with it. Our hope that the police/officials investigating Nicole's disappearance are not also corrupt is being tested.
In Mexico, 60-year old Canadian woman Renee Wathelet was murdered in her condo a week or two ago. This is the latest in a series of murdered Canadians in Mexico. Travelling does have risks, and life in general can be dangerous once in a while, no matter where you are. We have the unusual situation of Syria, but it would be no less devastating if Nicole had made it back and then disappeared or been murdered in her home.
One of Nicole's friends has taken a great interest in her disappearance appears to be working tirelessly to help find her. He read through the entire blog (which is quite lengthy at this point) trying to pull together information. Due to his work we've realized that Nicole's journals indicate she "socialized in the foyer" on the 29th, but the Americans she talked to that we've subsequently found and spoken with, talked to her on the 30th (as confirmed in the hotel guest register). That leaves us with people who would have spoken with Nicole (the "socializing") but whom we either haven't found, or haven't mentioned it to us. We found most of the guests, so this is very surprising. But it could be nothing - it is easy to forget idle chatter with a random person at a hostel, especially months or years later.
Again, these are the details you'd expect the police to be on top of, but it seems like we have to remind them that her journals even exist (which we translated to Arabic) sometimes. And such a difference proximity makes - the missing Russian girl here in Toronto has dozens of officers and helicopters and dogs out searching random parks in hopes of finding evidence. Meanwhile we have no RCMP presence on the ground (or desire to change that) and the Syrian police didn't investigate until a month after she was reported missing.
We're still working out how best to approach the Canadian government for more direct assistance and diplomatic support in convincing the Syrians to push a bit harder. The chance of an election has diminished recently, which at least reduces the distractions for politicians should we need their attention.
September 15th (Evening):
My youngest brother got assaulted this past weekend at university in Nova Scotia. Mom received a call on Saturday that he was in surgery for a broken jaw. He's covered in bruises and eating through a straw for the next month. He's pretty sure him and his friends will be able to identify the person who punched him so he can press charges.
Needless to say, this is stressful for all of us (but mostly my brother as he starts his third year of university). Mom is already extra protective when we travel because of what happened to Nicole, and I'm guessing this won't help.
My mom was supposed to be working on a letter to Canadian politicians this past weekend but this was just too distracting. Mom just got back from the East Coast where she helped my brother move and now both her and I have an urge to fly there and make sure he's okay. Sounds like his friends are taking good care of him though.
September 10th (Evening):
I just finished a conference call with my mom and an advisor of ours. We've recently received some documents from Syria indicating that our time may be running out on finding Nicole (ie, the police will stop looking or, since they've kind of stopped already, they will never start again). This adds some urgency, but then again, we've felt urgency before only to discover nothing ever happens as scheduled.
Our problem is that we don't feel the Syrians are properly equipped to investigate Nicole's disappearance. But the Canadian government and RCMP have little to no interest in doing the investigation either. They're not only reluctant to interfere in a foreign powers' affairs, not to mention being burned recently with the Arar case, they also don't have the tools. There is no Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade "Delta Force" or SWAT team that's waiting by the phone for missing people situations.
Given the lack of tools, they're happy to let the Syrians do what the Syrians think is sufficient. But that's not enough, and that's where we have a problem. Unfortunately, it's not an easy (or fast) problem to solve, and it's probably too late - there's lots of press when a "cold case" is solved, but that's just a very few of all the old, unsolved crimes out there.
I begin to wonder if we should become crusaders to fix the problem so no one else has to go through it. Should we push for a "Duty to Protect" Canadians when they're outside the country? Right now, the government picks and chooses who to help. Some people get security teams and equipment rushed in, others get ignored. As we've seen recently in the news, sometimes the government works *against* Canadians!
In the end though, all we want is to know what happened to Nicole. And that possibility seems to be slipping further and further away.
September 9th (Evening):
Received an email today asking if the blog was still being updated - a good reminder that I'm behind on saying anything.
I'm going to use the excuse that today is my birthday so no updates. We're having a meeting tomorrow night regarding Nicole so I'll update either tomorrow night or Friday.
August 23rd (Afternoon):
Canadian newspapers have been filled with stories these past weeks on the "competence" of Foreign Affairs and Embassy staff in handling various missing/held people cases. The woman stranded in Kenya when she shouldn't have been has set off of a firestorm of anger and a lot of probing questions.
It is also one year to the day since Amanda Lindhout was kidnapped in Somalia. In that case they have sporadic contact with the kidnappers/Amanda (or so it is believed) but nothing has moved forward. It appears that the family is not speaking with the media, which is unusual.
The idea/complaint that most resonates with me is the generalist nature of the Canadian diplomatic staff. Our staff in Syria do not speak Arabic as a general rule, and this is common to all the embassies. People get moved from location to location every few years, and you could be in Bolivia one year and Vietnam the next, and the two aren't particularly similar. This makes it difficult to connect with local officials and truly understand the society - stumbling blocks we continue to face.
It's definitely true that officials in Ottawa are not particularly helpful. Elected officials take very little notice of us, and the unelected officials can't relate to the situation from Ottawa, don't take things seriously, misunderstand what's needed, and in general treat Nicole being missing as something they can forget about at the end of the day when they go home.
I'm not sure anyone is really to blame for this. It would be expensive to significantly improve Canada's ability to respond to situations in foreign countries and they just aren't that frequent. But as someone involved in just such a situation, I really wish the government was able to swoop in and save us, instead of needing to be dragged in and held so they won't run off.
August 9th (Afternoon):
Another two weeks where nothing has changed. If only we could just walk away from all of this! Unfortunately, it's just not an option.
Back on May 15th I mentioned how the search for Christina Calayca was coming to end because her mother is exhausted and running low on resources. Not surprisingly, the search hasn't really ended - a mother cannot just give up searching for her daughter. The Toronto Star had a small article this week detailing how they are attemping to raise funds for additional searching, with little success. We were fortunate that people enthusiastically supported our early fundraising efforts (though that money has all run out) and also fortunate that Nicole had saved up a lot of money (she travelled cheap for a reason) that we're now spending to try and find her. Having a bit of financial freedom gives us options that other families do not have. I can imagine how much extra frustrating it is to not be able to afford to do what is needed. Though that being said, the search for Madeleine McCann (similarly done in a foreign country to where the parents live) has had millions in funding, but still no success (though they have a person of interest this week that will hopefully not be another false lead).
My mom's computer and hard drive crashed a few weeks ago. We didn't have a proper back-up and lost all of our information and emails. The drive was sent to a specialist to recover and we've gotten some information back, but a lot of information is gone. In particular, her entire email address book, so if you've been in touch with mom and wondering why she's stopped talking, it may be because she can no longer reach you. We've also lost some Syrian and government email contacts, which will be tough to replace. In addition, records relating to who donated have been damaged, though I believe everyone who has donated has been contacted (if this isn't true, please let me know).
Much of the information is duplicated on my computer (or my old computer that I was using in 2007) and/or my stepfather's computer, but my mom preferred having it readily available.
Looking at Madeleine McCann's website (it's very professional), and listening to comments from readers, I'm tempted to switch the format of this blog. I never intended for the blog to turn out this way - it was supposed to be a single entry back on April 22nd, 2007. But then people wanted to know how things were going, so I updated it. And then I was suddenly in the press and needed to provide a link so people could stay up-to-date. Once the link to the specific entry was out there, I was reluctant to change the update locations in case people missed it and thought Nicole had been found. I also envisioned a continuing conversation in the comments (never really happened, the comments aren't really easy to follow along with).
Hundreds of updates later, the blog entry is still dated April 22nd, 2007 and updates are no longer daily. That means people have to actively check back instead of using more modern technology like RSS feeds to be notified whenever something new is added. I'd like to make it easier for people to keep up.
I'm not going to change the website or anything, but I may (or may not) start updating the main blog page (vienneau.livejournal.com) instead of this page. If it happens, I'll make it very clear at the top.
July 23rd (Evening):
I'm having a lot of trouble maintaining a schedule with updates. I try to find several hours so I can respond to emails and immerse myself in our search before posting, but that's not always readily available.
As reported earlier, the Minister of the Interior and Minister of Justice in Syria were both replaced in May. To our dismay, they appeared to be avoiding a meeting with the Canadian Ambassador to discuss Nicole's case. This likely relates more to Canada's sometimes troubled relationship with Syria more than anything to do with Nicole - one of many frustrating side effects of searching for someone in a different country.
In the past few weeks, the Ambassador met with both officials and was given the usual promises. This is better than nothing, but we would prefer to see more concrete action.
As I've likely mentioned before, Syrian officials are not very forthcoming with information and we are concerned that they telling us they've done something, but not actually doing it. When Mom left Syria in March, she left behind two dozen different requests and avenues of investigation. For example, "please interview the hotel staff and guests that can be found in Syria and provide us with copies of the interviews". The copies could be in Arabic or English - we'll get them translated.
Months later, we're told that everyone is interviewed and there was no new information. But no one gives us copies of the interviews. Or even a consistent guest list. And so we're left wondering if it was actually done, or do they just roll their eyes at all this work we're asking for and ignore it?
Or possibly they've done all the legwork, but it's not standard to record it. Or they aren't keen to release it for cultural or diplomatic reasons. We can't tell and are forced to assume the worst.
From watching movies, you expect that in a case like this all the relevant people would be interviewed soon after the crime/mishap was discovered. But in the movies, everything works out conveniently - there's plenty of evidence and witnesses or other convenient coincidences. Real life is not so neat and tidy.
Since Nicole disappeared in March 2007, the entire senior staff at the Canadian Embassy in Damascus has been replaced. This is standard practice - staff rotate in for 2-3 years and then move on. It helps keep them from "going native", though I suspect there are benefits to having people with years of experience in the culture and with the people. This past week my mother and I met with the newest staff member here in Toronto - he stopped in on his was to Syria so he could get a first-hand impression of the situation. We really appreciate the gesture and effort involved in making this happen - it demonstrates a level of concern that is good to see. It also helps to be able to discuss the case privately in Canada versus official discussion in Hama or Damascus.
We had another lead on Amine Benyahia but the email address wasn't working. We haven't been concentrating on guests or Amine as our focus has been on the Cairo Hotel where she was last seen for certain. It felt a bit strange writing the "Hello, are the person who was in Syria in March 2007?" email again - it's been a long time. The searcher identified the contact by searching in French, finding their university registration, and then searching on their topic matter and Syria to see if there were any links (fluid mechanics and the irrigation/water wheels in Hama were a potential connection). This kind of searching gives me fond memories of the volunteers who helped so much in 2007 and later with the search for guests (including some that have been extremely important in our search). Their creativity was inspiring.
July 6th (Morning):
Our strategy for finding Nicole has not been successfull so far so we are trying some new approaches. We've brought in some new advisors and we're hopeful that their experience will help us get the results we're looking for and we will find out what happened in Syria.
Over the past year or so, there has been a lot going on behind the scenes that we have been unable to reveal with risking the investigation or offending people we don't want to offend. We're still not quite ready to go public with those details, but we're pretty close. As soon as we feel that keeping them quiet hurts us more than helps, we'll make everything available.
Another "frustrating/amusing" anecdote relating to our search. We have a representative in Syria who provides us reports in Arabic via the Embassy. Amidst the chaos of mom's visits (which are often hectic with many meetings and lots of information being passed around), one of the reports didn't get passed along to us. It wasn't until a year later when it was mentioned during Mom's next visit to Syria that we even realized it existed.
To make sure there isn't anything else that might have slipped between the cracks, we asked for a list of all the various document so we could compare them to what we've read. But because we made the request in Canada, we were told it has to be a formal Freedom of Information request! Once again we are hassled by our own privacy laws. It's remotely possible we may not even get our own information because it relates to Nicole, and she hasn't given permission for her private information to be given out. Hopefully that is not the case - common sense clearly indicates that Nicole would want her family to have all the help they can get to find her.
In other news, here is a link to an interview with the Syrian First Lady. And if you search on "Syrian President" on the top right corner of the page, you can see interviews with the Syrian President. I thought this might be interesting for people who are not familiar with Syria. Their direct intervention to help in our search would be very much appreciated.
July 5th (Evening):
Removed temporarily.
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Additional Links:
Here are the guest lists for the Cairo Hotel (where Nicole was staying) and the Riad Hotel (right next door). Please look them over and let me know if you recognize anyone so we can ask them if they spoke with Nicole. Keep in mind that these are the phonetic translations of English names to Arabic and back, so they may not be spelled correctly (or even close to correctly).
The Cairo Hotel - Do You Know Anyone On This List?
Less Important:
The Riad Hotel (Arrived After March 28th) - Do You Known Anyone On This List?
The Riad Hotel (Arrived Before March 28th) Do You Known Anyone On This List?
Least Important:
The Citadel Hotel - Do You Known Anyone On This List?
On his own initiative, a friend of Nicole's in Vancouver has put up a "YouTube" video.
Another reader has done her own "YouTube" video as well.
Here's a TV interview with me regarding Nicole, if anyone is interested.
Original Post from April 22nd, 2007:
As a few of you are aware, I am the oldest of a medley of half- and step- siblings including an 18-year old brother, a 17.5 year old sister and a 29-year old brother. In addition to that I have a 32-year old sister who I didn't really get along with all that well growing up until she moved across the country for university and we spent some time apart. Three thousand kilometres can do wonders for a relationship, and we've gotten along a lot better now that we're both grown up and not fighting over Lego.
My sister likes going on long solo trips to third world countries. And by long, I mean that her shortest trip was around six months. Over the past 10-15 years, she has spent six to nine months in Asia, six to nine months in Latin America and six to nine months in south and east Africa. The last trip happened to coincide with the 2001 Magic Invitational that I was covering in Capetown, so she and I met up afterwards at Victoria Falls and spent three weeks travelling through Botswana, Namibia and Capetown. It was the best trip of my life - I recommend everyone visit.
Late last year my sister headed on out to west Africa for another seven months of travel. Starting in Morocco, her plan was to head through under-travelled countries such as Mali and Ghana, and then fly up to Egypt and the Middle-East, ending in Turkey. As she began her travels, I found myself in the awkward position of promising the Armoire a vacation and yet being unable to follow through. As a result, I was looking at other, non-Magic related, trips that I would still enjoy. Egypt had always been a dream and with my sister heading through at roughly the time we wanted to go, everything was gravy. (what exactly does that mean?)
After a month of travelling together, the Armoire and I left my sister in Jordan and came back mid-March. I didn't write anything about it because I've spent the past month doing nothing but talking about Egypt with friends and family so I was a bit weary of the subject. In summary: Egypt was okay but I wouldn't likely return, Jordan was fantastic and I see myself visiting the Middle-East again at some point in the future.
Whenever my sister announces a new trip, my parents start getting upset and begin worrying. They were certain that the two of us were in mortal danger in Africa (both times) and are always fretting about disease and mayhem. My sister's arrival in Lebanon in March was an occasion for much stress at Sunday night dinner with my mom.
One of the methods we use to make sure everything is okay is that my sister has to email or call home every fourteen days, or my mom will contact Foreign Affairs and have them hunt her down. This only had to happen once back in the 1990s for my sister to take it seriously and always contact us. She also is in regular communication with her ever-understanding boyfriend in Vancouver.
My sister hasn't emailed anyone since March 29th, roughly three and a half weeks ago.
We know she made it out of Lebanon and was in Syria. Her Syrian visa expired on April 5th, so we presume that she's in Turkey, but can't say for certain. My mom contacted Foreign Affairs on Thursday and they're checking if she crossed the border (we hope). But it's a long-weekend in the Middle-East so we haven't heard anything (perhaps tomorrow). They suggested that young girls can get caught up in things and forget to email, but she's not that young (my apologies to her in advance!) and she's not foolhardy - you don't successfully navigate all these trips by being silly.
I want to think that she's okay. Something along the lines of she's stuck in obscure mountain villages with no access to the outside world. But it seems increasingly unlikely. Maybe she's sending emails and they're somehow not getting through, but I can't imagine why. On the other hand, if something has gone wrong, wouldn't the local authorities have mentioned it to the Embassy? Does Canada even have a Syrian embassy?
It's very troubling. And there doesn't seem to be much you can do. We may start trying to contact all the budget hostels along the border (my sister uses the Lonely Planet to travel), but other than flying over with a photo, you're kind of left waiting for the government to do the work.
Some questions for the world:
1. What other reasonable explanations could there be for her not contacting us?
2. Any other ideas on how to find or reach her?
All my Turkish and Syrian readers are especially encouraged to post!
