Opinion ID: 2996942
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Motion to Reopen Based on the Convention

Text: Against Torture We also find that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in determining that the Pelinkovics could not state a prima facie case under the CAT. “An applicant has the burden of No. 02-3065 15 proof to establish that it is more likely than not that he or she would be tortured if removed to the proposed country of removal.” Mansour, 230 F.3d at 907. “Torture,” under the CAT, is defined as: [A]ny act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or her or a third person information or a confession, punishing him or her for an act he or she or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or her or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. 8 C.F.R. § 208.18(a)(1); see also 8 C.F.R. § 208.18(a)(4) (defining under what circumstances “mental pain or suffering” may constitute torture). According to the BIA, the Pelinkovics’ motion to reopen and attached evidence failed to show that any of them would be subject to “torture” as that term is defined in the federal regulations. We agree. The Pelinkovics premise their CAT claim, filed in April of 1999, on what appeared to be Montenegro’s imminent civil war with Serbia. The Pelinkovics reasoned that because Serbia demonstrated a pattern of human rights abuses against ethnic Albanians in its Kosovar campaign, it would continue that practice against ethnic Albanians in any armed conflict with Montenegro. Their petition states: As shown by the articles attached hereto, on or about April 3, 1999, President Slobodan Milosevic fired eight Serbian generals stationed in Montenegro and replaced them with hard-line loyalist[s]. That there is incipient concern on the part of the United States that this action will precipitate a civil war between Montenegro and 16 No. 02-3065 Serbia and will result in the commission of atrocities and torture against ethnic Albanians residing in Montenegro. (A.R. 16, ¶ 5); see also (A.R. 21, ¶¶ 4, 6) (“I and my family face substantial risk of torture by the Serbian army. In the event of final control of the government of Montenegro by Serbia, the Serbian army will engage in the torture and wholesale slaughter of Albanians, particular[ly] adult males. . . . This slaughter is now occurring in Kosovo.”). As with the similar claims made in support of their motion to reopen based on changed country conditions, the Pelinkovics’ failure to make a particularized showing that any of them would more likely than not be subject to torture upon their return, as differentiated from the general risk shared by all ethnic Albanians in Montenegro, dooms their case. See Tarawally v. Ashcroft, 338 F.3d 180, 188 (3d Cir. 2003) (denying a Sierra Leone petitioner’s CAT claim despite evidence that the government at the time of his application committed widespread human rights abuses, including arbitrary killing of civilians, because those statements “alone are insufficient to demonstrate that it is more likely than not that a particular civilian, in this case Tarawally, will be tortured by [the government] if returned to Sierra Leone.”). Indeed, it was impossible for the Pelinkovics to make such a showing, as the events they feared were prospective—possible civil war with Serbia, possibly resulting in the same ethnic cleansing directed at ethnic Albanians as in other Milosevic campaigns. Thankfully, those possibilities did not come to pass.