Somalia

The current attention accorded to Somalia by the international community is inadequate and generally misdirected. Political issues continue to dominate the discussions and thus, as a result, the human rights situation is neglected and ignored at a terrible cost to civilians and in particular to human rights defenders (HRDs). There is currently no international human rights presence in Somalia.1

The human rights situation in Somalia has been of grave concern ever since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991 ending years of his violent rule. Over the last two decades the rights of Somali civilians have been violated time and again by all actors involved in the struggle to fill the power vacuum which resulted from Barre’s overthrow. The perpetrators, whether governmental or members of insurgency groups, clan militias or warlords, have all been accorded virtual impunity.
The human rights situation in Somalia has significantly deteriorated following the December 2006 invasion of Ethiopian troops in support of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG). The invasion succeeded in pushing the Union of Islamic Courts (ICU), which had emerged as a powerful political force in Mogadishu in early 2006 and later in the southern and central regions, out of the capital.
The TFG continues to be incredibly weak and largely lacks the essential support of the Somali population where as the ICU is once again gaining control over certain areas. Lawlessness prevails in many parts of the country as the TFG has failed to consolidate control over the Somali territory. The failure of the TFG to even gain control over certain areas of Mogadishu and its inability to assure the security of the civilian population has given free reign to al-Shabab fighters, clan-based insurgents and warlords. ‘War-lordism’ is in fact on the increase in many parts of the country.
Somali civilians continue to bear the brunt of the deteriorating security and human rights situation in the country. The fighting between TFG forces backed by the Ethiopian forces and the insurgents have resulted in the killing of more than 2,000 civilians. Sixty percent of the civilian population of Mogadishu is believed to have deserted the town since the fighting started as the different warring parties have indiscriminately attacked civilian areas and terrorized the population of the capital. 2 Those fleeing Mogadishu have often been injured, assaulted, raped and looted of all their property during their flight. The internally displaced camps are overcrowded and lack access to basic sanitation.3

Right to life has evidently been gravely violated notably as a result of the fighting in Mogadishu and in south and central Somalia. According to reports, 60% of those killed during the fighting have been women, children and elderly.4 The number of cases of unlawful executions, notably at the hands of TFG and Ethiopian troops, has greatly increased since October 2007 – as both forces increase their raids on civilian areas suspected of supporting or hiding insurgents. Amnesty International has reported on a number of horrific extra-judicial and indiscriminate killings by Ethiopian forces, notably involving the slitting of the victim’s throat. Human rights defenders, and in particular journalists, humanitarian workers, peace activists continue to be the victims of targeted killings.

Insurgent groups are responsible for numerous killings of government officials and police. Politically motivated killings by the insurgents have resulted in the deaths of considerable number of senior TFG officials and members of the Banadir regional administration, including district commissioners and their deputies, and security and court officials. The population is also victim of violations committed by the insurgents who have launched indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in Mogadishu
Targeted attacks and killings of humanitarian workers continue to occur. Two aid workers, a Kenyan and a Briton who had been working in Somalia for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, were kidnapped by gunmen in the southern Juba region in early April 2008 and are still being held. On the 8th April a UNHCR convoy was ambushed by gunmen.5 Aid operations are also hampered by attacks from the different warring parties. The abduction and attacks carried out on humanitarian personnel has forced many NGOs to pull out. As a result access to greatly needed humanitarian assistance by the Somali population is further thwarted.
Human rights violations against civilians by the TGF forces and their Ethiopian allies have been increasing since late 2007. In response to the insurgents’ actions in Mogadishu the TFG and their Ethiopian counterparts have carried out a series of mass arrests and arbitrary detentions. Many of those detained have been transferred to unknown locations, kept in makeshift prisons as well as in some of the more notorious prisons where they have been held without trial.6 Reports have revealed that in some instances people arrested are brought to Ethiopia to be interrogated. In their supposed search for Al-Qaeda members in ‘insurgent strongholds’, both forces have carried out raids on villages, looting, arbitrarily arresting and killing people in the process. Sexual violence, notably gang rape, is also prevalent during these raids.

Although torture is prohibited by the TFG Charter, there are reports that both the TFG forces and militia groups tortured their detainees.  According to the Independent Expert on Somalia, some efforts are being made to ensure that police trainees were receiving human rights training and that some monitoring of prisons was taking place to tackle arbitrary detention. Nevertheless these efforts were minimal.7

Women’s rights have always been poor in Somalia. Nevertheless, the current lawlessness, insecurity and forced displacement have led to a further deterioration of the reality facing women and girls. Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a significant problem. Many of those living in displacement camps are particularly vulnerable to SGBV. Women continue to be discriminated against in access to land and property. FGM, notably the most serious forms, continues to be practised. Rape at the hands of TFG and Ethiopian armed forces, the police but also resulting from inter-clan rivalry is widespread but perpetrators are rarely held accountable.
Civilians in general have suffered from massive rights violations but certain groups of the population, notably human rights defenders (HRDs) and in particular journalists, have been subjected to persistent and targeted violations.
Human rights activists have come under considerable attack notably with the apparent closure by the TGF forces of the Elman Human Rights organisation, which was one of the country’s oldest human rights NGO.8 As a result, a significant number have been forced into exile: the chairperson of Somali Human Rights defenders Network and its legal adviser are currently living in exile in Uganda. Peace activists have also fallen victim of targeted killings. Those still operating on the ground, notably the Peace and Human Rights Network (PHRN) have resigned themselves to using self-censorship in order to protect themselves from TFG and insurgent attacks. In spite of this they continue to be subjected to intimidations and threats. On the 11th June 2008 Somali peace activist, Executive Director of the Women Care Organisation (WOCA) and founding member of the Peace and Human Rights Network (PHRN), Mr Mohammed Abdulle Mahdi “ Qeylow”, was killed in Swk Ba‘ad in Northern Mogadishu.9

Somalia is at present the second most deadliest place in the world to be a journalist, after Iraq, and the situation has continued to rapidly deteriorate ever since the Ethiopian invasion.10 This has created a climate of intimidation and fear which greatly hampers freedom of expression amongst these key proponents of human rights. Journalists and media organisations in all regions have reported harassment, killings, detention without charges and assaults.
This crackdown on independent media is largely due to the fact that following the closure of prominent human rights organisations and the flight of key human rights activists, journalists are at present one of the few voices still speaking out against the massive human rights violations being perpetrated against innocent civilians in the country and have thus become prime targets of these attacks.
The attacks on the media and media workers have come from all sides and parties in the conflict- from TFG forces, to insurgents, to Ethiopian troops. All of the warring actors accuse journalists of siding with the opposition and covering the abuses of certain parties in the conflict more than others. In October 2007, for example, TFG security forces closed Radio Simba after it conducted a telephone interview with a former Islamist leader.
The leading independent radio stations, HornAfrik, Radio Shabelle and Holy Q’uran Radio, have been repeatedly attacked. All of these have been closed at one time or another by the TFG forces. Crucial equipment has been destroyed.  On the 2nd March 2008, TGF forces forcefully entered the offices of Simba and Shabelle, destroyed recording equipment and detained the Director of Radio Shabelle.11 On the 17th March 2008 heavily armed police forces entered the privately-owned Radio Voice of Peace and arrested five of the radio’s employees; they were later released without any explanation. The journalists believed that their arrests may have been linked to their reporting of a recent attack by insurgents.12
Journalists have been subjected to systematic attacks: arbitrarily arrested and detained without charge, threatened with imprisonment or death, followed and harassed in the streets and intimidated at their place of work. Several journalists have had their houses searched, property destroyed, members of their families intimidated, received death threats, and some have seen members of their families kidnapped. One of the journalists currently in exile in Uganda was arrested by Ethiopian troops and taken to Ethiopia where he was held incommunicado and interrogated before finally being released. At least nine journalists have been the victims of targeted killings since 2007. Only recently, on the 7th June 2008, Nasteh Dahir Farah,Vice President of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and correspondant for BBC and for the Associated Press News Agency, was shot dead on his way home by gunmen who are believed to have links with islamic insurgents.
As a result, many journalists have either been forced to exert self-censure, notably by reducing their reporting on ‘taboo’ issues such as human rights violations and military operations, forced into hiding or forced to seek refuge abroad. Although the exact number of journalists that have fled from Somalia is not known there are at present over a hundred scattered around the sub-region. The number of exiled journalists and HRDs in the sub region continues to rise.
One potentially positive development which needs to be highlighted was the appointment as Minister of Information and Deputy Prime Minister of Ahmed Abdisalam Adan, who had co-founded HornAfrik; a new media law has since been approved which contains certain positive elements which promote free expression.  Nevertheless there are some concerns within the human rights community that this law may in fact further undermine freedom of expression by establishing a rather restrictive regulatory framework, not only over registration but also media output. 13

These violations continue to occur in a climate of impunity and no efforts have been made by the still very weak and unpopular TGF to end these violations and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Somaliland

Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, following the overthrow of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. It has since enjoyed relative stability but has still not been recognised as a sovereign state by the international community. Somaliland has witnessed increasing attacks on free press, public meetings and cases of torture.

The rivalry between the two breakaway semi-autonomous regions of Somaliland and Puntland seems to be worsening with clashes during 2007 claiming the lives of at least 30 people and forcing another wave of displacement. The two territories are conflicting over the control of the city of Las Anod, the capital of Sool region. The fighting which escalated in October, involving exchanges of heavy artillery fire, took place in and around Las Anod, a town near the Ethiopian border.

The government continues to use its current legal status, or lack of recognition, as a means of restricting civilians’ political rights. The opposition is viewed with hostility and their movements are restricted, any criticism made of the regime by the opposition is countered by hostile propaganda in which they are accused of endangering peace and stability. Opposition parties are prevented from staging public gatherings in key, symbolic locations. In July 2007 three opposition members who had recently set-up a party, the Qaran, were arrested by the Somaliland police and sent to a high security prison. They were given an unfair trial, with no access to legal assistance. In spite of national and international pressure the President refused to release the three politicians and in fact ordered the rounding up of friends and relatives of one of the detainees, Dr Mohamed Abdi Gabose. The three politicians were finally released on the 29th December 2007 following extensive pressure from the international community.
The municipal elections which were supposed to take place on the 15th December 2007 were postponed for a year; the Council of Elders, which is largely unrepresentative of the population and plays a significant part in maintaining negative traditions, saw its’ term extended for a further 4 years and the Presidential elections which were due to take place in April 2008 will now take place in May 2009.

The security services continue to unlawfully arrest civilians under the pretext of protecting national peace. The Somaliland authorities persist in rounding up refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia and handing them over to the Ethiopian authorities on the pretext of belonging to Oromo Liberation Front, Ogaden National Liberation Front, AL-Qaeda or Union of Islamic Courts. Others have been arrested and ‘disappeared’.

Societal discrimination against women continues to be a serious problem in Somaliland. According to EHAHRD-Net’s Focal Point in Somaliland, Samotalis Coalition of Human Rights, the bill approved by parliament on quotas set for the minority groups and women which was supposed to be initiated during the Municipal Elections of December 2007 has since been disregarded by the government. Most forms of violence against women are widespread in Somaliland. Rape, including gang rape, continues to take place in a climate of impunity as cultural norms prevent women from seeking redress. In fact, on many occasions women who speak out end up being forced to marry their violators. The perpetrators go unpunished and the victims are left untreated, un-rehabilitated and without reparation. Women continue to face physical, sexual and psychological abuses throughout the country. The practice of female genital mutilation, in its worst form, is pervasive. The judicial system in Somaliland which is made up of three parallel legal systems-  Sharia law, traditional Somali customary law and a more modern legal component- has a very negative impact on women in particular with regards to the fight against FGM.
Religious freedoms are curtailed notably by customary law which make it illegal to proselytize for any religion except Islam.

The Somaliland authorities are determined to gain control over human rights organizations and transform them into GONGOs (Governmental NGOs). The excuse of national peace is often used as a means of restricting public gatherings. Stringent registration criteria greatly undermine the space accorded to human rights NGOs. Human rights defenders are denied access to key information and continue to be branded as enemies of the nation. Nevertheless according to EHAHRD-Net member, human rights activists are able to a certain extent to pursue their work.

Freedom of expression, though constitutionally provided for, continues to be restricted. The Somaliland government has openly banned the opening of private radio stations.  Journalists are cruelly dealt with by the police and subjected to frequent unlawful arrests, beatings, harassments, having their offices raided and properties destroyed by police units acting on the orders of the Government.
The editor of Somaliland’s leading independent newspaper, the Jamhuuriya, Hassan Said Yusuf, has been arrested more than fifteen times. Restrictions and attacks on free expression have been justified as being carried out in the name of national unity. Mr Yusuf’s last arrest in September 2007 followed the publication of a report he had written on the Somali Peace Conference, which included comments by Somali warlords accusing the Somaliland authorities of being soft. 14
The Haatuf Media Network and its journalists have come under attack on several occasions. In a recent case, Ahmed Adan Dhere, a journalist from Haatuf newspaper, was arrested by the Police in Berbera “on the false pretext of printing anti-government slogans and mobilizing young people to stage a demonstration.15” However, independent sources suggest that the main reason behind his arrest had been his involvement in critical reporting against government actions. He has since been released.
In November 2007 two journalists were arrested without charges and badly treated at the hands of the security forces; one of the journalists, Abdiqani Hassan Farah,  believes that he was arrested after he reported on the issue of the disputed Las Anod region which the Somaliland authorities make claim to.16
Another example of the authorities lack of respect for freedom of expression and press was the threat made against Somali journalists that arrived in Hergeisa in December 2007 that they would be expelled from Somaliland as their presence risked to undermine relations with Ethiopia; this was clearly in disrespect of international law and largely ignored the fact that the lives of these journalists were at risk. The authorities eventually gave into pressure for human rights groups and did not expel the journalists.