Out of Country

So they wait.

Soubiane keeps in touch with events in Chad via the Internet, where he has established a Web site for the opposition coalition he founded last year. He is reading of the unrest in Chad, the desertions in the military, the recent spurt of fighting in the capital. And each day, the couple attend English language classes at nearby Howard Community College. After all, they might be here for a while.

In the interview, the Soubianes lamented their limbo.

"The asylum is the key," Zarga Soubiane says. "If you don't have asylum, you are not a human being."

Her husband speaks of the lack of support he has received from the U.S. government.

"President Bush all the time says when people stand up for democracy and liberty, 'We will stand with them.' "

But the State Department has treated Soubiane's position as a Chadian political matter. And although a nephew of Soubiane has received asylum based solely on his relation to the embattled ambassador, according to their lawyer, David Goren, Soubiane himself has not been so lucky.

Immigration officials within the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday took a pass on the Soubianes' asylum application, referring it instead to immigration court, where a judge will hear the case next year.

For the Soubianes, life in limbo drags on.