S0MALIA:
A LONG-TERM HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS
- 1.
Human Rights in Somalia
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- Human
rights have been persistently violated in Somalia ever since 1969
when the present government assumed power. These violations increased
during the 1980s, as the government took stern measures against
suspected political opponents and those believed to have links
with armed opposition organizations.
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- The
evidence reveals a consistent pattern of torture, lengthy and
often arbitrary detention of suspected political opponentsof the
government and unfair trials of political defendants. Prisoners
have been kept for years in harsh conditions, incommunicado and
without proper medical treatment.
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- Many
prisoners have been executed after unfair, frequently summitry
trials, and many unarmed civilians have been executed extrajudicially
by the security forces.
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- A
number of those detained without trail or serving long prison
sentences are prisoners of conscience, incarcerated because of
their opinions, who have not used or advocated violence. One prisoner
of conscience in Somalia, Yusuf Osman Samantar, a lawyer and former
member of parliaipernt, has been in prison without charge or trial
almost throughout the present goverriment's 19 years in office.
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- The
humam rights violations documented in this report have often been
brought to the attention of the Somali government Amnesty International
has repeatedly called on itto end these grave violations of basic
human rights. But the appeals have largely gone unanswered. Recently
the government accused Amnesty International of interfering in
its internal affair's and making propaganda for the opposition.
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- To
this. Amnesty international replied that human rights were a matter
of concern to the international community and that the government
was under an obligation to prnotect these rights, particularly
in view of its commitment to uphold the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
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- Amnesty
International reiterated its political impartiality and that it
had carefully scrutinized information coming from politically
motivated sources, The government has not consented to receive
an Amnesty International mission and in early 1988 refused to
issue visas to Amnesty International delegates wanting to visit
Somalia to observe an important political trial.
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- Meanwhile
torture, numerous detentions and other, human rights violations
continue. The organization's concern has been increased by news
of major human rights abuses during fighting in the north between
government, and oppositior forces, which began in late May 1988.
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- This
report is based on evidence collected overn some years about political
prisoners, torture, laws providing for the trial or detention
of political defendants, political trial prison conditions and
executions. Former political prisoners' testimonies have been
a cruciaI part of the information on a human rights situation
treat has been difficult to document.
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- Some
of these testimonies , particuIarly those that describe torture
in details, are included in the report. However, the names of
the victims have in most cases been withheld at their request
for fear of reprisals against their relatives in Somalia even
years after the victims have left prison. The government's repression
of dissent and criticism and its efforts to prevent any information
about human rights bein collected within Somalia, or given to
anyone abroad, have hindered the documentation of human rights
- abuses
in Somalia over the years.
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- Information
from political sources. such as opposition organizations, has
been carefully scruti nized in order to ensure that Amnesty Internationals
reporting on SomaIia and appeals to the government of Somalia
are based on reliable and impartial evidence which has been corroborated
by independent sources.
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- The
government's first prisoners of conscience in 1969 were members
of the elected civilian government which it overthrew in a military
coup. Many of them were held without trial for four years Former,
Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal was detained from 1969 to
1975, rearrested in 1976, sentenced to 30 years'imprisonment,
then released the following year. Mohamed Abshir Musse, former
chief of police, was detained with out trial from 1969 to '1982
except for a few months' freedom in 1973 prisoners of concience
arrested in the 1970s and 1980s have included government ministers,
diplomats, civil servent, members of parliament, army officers
lawyers, Islamic reIigious leaders and teachers (sheikhs), business
people. university lecturers, teachers and students. poets in
the somali oral poetic tradition, doctors and scientists, and
countless farmers and nomads. Particularly disturbing has been
the widespread and arbitrary imprisonment of school students.
some as young as 12 many refugee too have been arbitrarily detained
for a long periods.
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- Since
1978 people suspected of support of armed oppsition have been
imrisoned. following a war with Ethiopia in 1977-78 and an unsuccessful
coup attempt by part of the armay in 1978, the government faced
armed oppsitions by somali exile group based in ethiopia - the
Democratic front for the salvation of somali (DFSS) and the Somali
national movement (SNM). It has reacted by making widespread and
often indiscriminnate aressts or even Killing people in part of
the country from which these groups have drawn their support from
- fro example in Mudug region in southeast between 1978 and 1982
and in the north since 1983. A state of emergency was in force
throughout the country from October 1980 until March 1982. Since
then the northern region have been under virtual military rule
by thre northern sector army commander
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- Amensty
international believes that many of those arrested and not used
violence or advocated armed opposition but were seized arbitrarliy
and without good couse. many other political prisoners may have
advocated armed struggle against the government or may have had
political links with the armed opposition. Amensty International
does not cliam that all political prisoners in Somalia have beeb
or are prisoners of conscience. nevertheless, the protection of
basic human right of all prisoners arrested on political grounds
has been a long-term Amensty International concern in view of
the pattern of arbitrary detention, unfair trial and torture of
such prisoners.
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- Since
1969 many thousands have been jailed for political reasons, either
on the basis of actual evidence of their involvement in opposition
activities or for privately criticizing the government or President
or else merely because they were a relative or associate of a
supposed political opponent.
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- It
is impossible to estimate the actual number of political prisoners:
this information is not disclosed by the government and clearly
the individual prisoners Amnesty International knows about are
only a fractiori of those held throughout the country. The increase
in armed opposition activity in the 1980s has meant an increase
in the number of Suspected government opponents arrested.
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- The
Torture of political prisoner's was reported several times in
the 1970s but more frequent reports of this in the 1980s indicate
that it has become routine and systematic. Regularly used torture
methods include: the "Mig" , so-called from the swept-back
wings of the MIG aircraft:
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the
prisoner is placed face down or the gr,c)und, hands and feet
tied together behind the back with a rope, which is pulled tight
so that the body is arched backwards, in which position the
victim is beaten. often until unconscious: water torture:
the victim is tied up and submerged in water until nearly drowned
- either dipped head first into a bucket or, tank of water,
or else
- put
in the sea tied up in a sack; electric shocks; squeezing with
pliers of the testicles of male prisoners: rape (in the case of
female victims).
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- Torture
is inflicted particularly by the National Security Service (NSS)
and the military police, The NSS is the main state organization
responsible for internal security and the arrest and interrogation
of people regarded as a threat to national security. The military
police perform similar functions in the north.
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- The
establishment of the NSS in 1970 was part of' a series of legal
measures by the new miIitary government in it's first year of
offocie designed to suppress and punish any opposition to its
rule. A series of decrees created a battery of national security
laws which enabled the indefinite detention with out trail of
political opponents beginning with retroactive legislation which
legalized the detention of members of the overthrow government
and permitted summary trial of people alleged to criticized or
opposed the new government. These new laws and the special court
procedures, which conflict with international legal and human
rights standards, are still in force and underlie
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