Amnesty International Report 1998 - Somalia

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)

Human rights abuses against unarmed civilians, including women and children, were carried out by militias of clan-based factions. Abuses included scores of deliberate and arbitrary killings, as well as hostage-taking and rape. Several prisoners of conscience who were imprisoned in 1996 and early 1997 were released. An Islamic court imposed two sentences of amputation and many floggings. Several people were believed to have been executed after being condemned to death by Islamic and clan courts.

Efforts continued towards peace, reconciliation and the establishment of a transitional government for the former Somali Republic, but at the end of the year there was still no central or recognized government in the collapsed state. Nor was there any consistent, effective or fair criminal justice system (see Amnesty International Report 1997). The Sodere agreement, signed in Ethiopia in January by 26 Somali factions, created a National Salvation Council but this was boycotted by Hussein Aideed's Somali National Alliance and by the self-declared, but still unrecognized, Somaliland Republic in the northwest. Two inter-faction agreements reached in Cairo, Egypt, and Sanaa, Yemen, in May similarly failed to include all parties. However a meeting in Cairo in December, which included Hussein Aideed's group, agreed to convene a reconciliation conference in Somalia in 1998 to form a transitional government, elect its leaders and a constituent assembly, and set up an independent judiciary.

The level of faction fighting was lower than in any year since civil war started in 1991, but in certain areas casualties included unarmed civilians. In Mogadishu there were several outbreaks of fighting between the militia forces of Hussein Aideed and Ali Mahdi, both of whom claimed to be president of Somalia. There were also clashes between Hussein Aideed's forces and those of Osman Ali Atto, and in July between Ali Mahdi's forces and Islamic court militias. There were several periods of intensive fighting in the central Bay and Bakol regions, where the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (rra) sought to dislodge Hussein Aideed's forces from Baidoa town. In Gedo region, the Marehan clan-based Somali National Front, reportedly supported at times by Ethiopian army units, fought with Islamist Al-Itihad militias. Tensions between Marehan and Majerten clans in Kismayu port and between pro-Aideed and pro-Ali Mahdi factions in other central regions also occasionally erupted into violence. Meanwhile, Somaliland and Bari and Nugal regions in the northeast remained mainly peaceful.

The UN Security Council in February made further appeals to all Somali political factions for peace and reconciliation. In April the UN Commission on Human Rights, having received a report from the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, called for all parties to respect human rights and international humanitarian law. The Commission called on them to support the re-establishment of the rule of law by applying internationally accepted criminal justice standards, and to protect UN and other humanitarian workers. It called on the international community to incorporate human rights principles and objectives into humanitarian and development work. In July the UN Secretary-General appointed a Special Envoy for Somalia to further the peace process.

In the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa in February, the National Conference of the Clans elected Mohamed Ibrahim Egal for a further three-year term as President of Somaliland and the National Assembly approved a provisional Constitution. The Constitution maintains the independence of Somaliland and contains a number of human rights provisions relating to the independence of the judiciary and protection against arbitrary imprisonment.

There were new allegations of human rights violations by some of the foreign troops during the 1993 UN operation in Somalia. Fresh allegations of abuses including torture, sexual abuse and unlawful killings were levelled at Belgian and Italian troops. These allegations were the subject of various investigations and criminal proceedings in those countries (see

Belgium and Italy entries)

Human rights abuses by clan-based militias continued throughout the year. There were several cases of hostage-taking accompanied by death threats, although it was rarely clear which group was responsible. Several people, both Somalis and foreign nationals, working for non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, including the UN, were kidnapped, but all were apparently released within a few days. Somali journalists and human rights activists frequently received death threats on account of their professional activities. A Portuguese doctor working for Médecins sans Frontières was killed in Baidoa in June and two Somali staff of World Concern were killed in Kismayu in August. The victims were deliberately targeted on account of their humanitarian work, although it was not clear who was responsible. In February and October there were several revenge killings of prominent people in the rival factions of Osman Atto and Hussein Aideed in Mogadishu.

Scores of unarmed civilians were deliberately and arbitrarily killed by armed militias, some in artillery bombardments. Few details were available of these incidents and the perpetrators were rarely identified. In March, 17 members of the Bantu minority, including four women and eight children, were killed by faction militias in Jamiya Misra village in Middle Shebelle region, and seven women were raped. There were reports that as many as 200 civilians had been killed in September by Hussein Aideed's forces in and around Baidoa

In Somaliland, Mahmoud Abdi Shidde, publisher of the Jamhuriya newspaper which had been critical of the Somaliland administration, was detained twice. He was held briefly in April, until a court ordered his release, and for a week in September. He was a prisoner of conscience. All political prisoners and captured clan fighters imprisoned in Somaliland in 1996, including about 20 prisoners of conscience jailed after a peaceful demonstration (see Amnesty International Report 1997), were released in an amnesty in January.

It was difficult to establish whether any political prisoners were held by faction militias in Mogadishu or elsewhere, although there were reports that captured rra fighters and possibly civilian opponents were held by Hussein Aideed's forces in Baidoa

An Islamic court imposed floggings and amputations, punishments which are cruel, inhuman and degrading, and so prohibited by international law. In North Mogadishu in May, an Islamic court imposed two sentences of amputation, which were carried out immediately. Abshir Mohamed Ahmed, convicted of theft, had his right hand amputated, and Qasim Beshir Mohamed, convicted of armed robbery, had his right hand and left foot amputated. They did not have fair trials – the proceedings were arbitrary and summary, and they were denied legal representation and the right of appeal. Subsequently, after criticism by Somali lawyers and a local human rights organization, the Dr Ismail Centre for Human Rights, the court agreed to review its procedures and no more amputations were imposed during the year.

Several executions were believed to have taken place after trials by Islamic and clan courts but details were not available.

There was a new development in June regarding gross violations of human rights committed by the former government of Siad Barre (1969 to 1991). Mass graves were discovered in Hargeisa of some 200 political prisoners extrajudicially executed in May 1988.

Amnesty International called throughout the year on all factions to respect human rights and control their militias

In June it welcomed the inquiries and prosecutions of those allegedly responsible for torture or extrajudicial executions during the UN operation, and gave evidence to an Italian commission of inquiry. In July Amnesty International published a report on a human rights training workshop it held for Somali organizations, Somalia: Putting human rights on the agenda.