Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Somalia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links have
been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Somalia. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent
countries and/or regions. Meanwhile,
check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Somalia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/somalia/
[accessed 8 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT NISA agents
routinely conducted mass security sweeps against al-Shabaab and terrorist
cells, as well as against criminal groups. The organization held detainees
for prolonged periods without following due process and mistreated suspects
during interrogations. There remained
multiple credible reports of rape and sexual abuse by government agents, primarily in the security forces (see section
1.g.). For example, in April, SNA troops were implicated in four rapes of
women and girls of various ages, with one as young as three years old, in
Lower Shabelle region. Al-Shabaab imposed
harsh punishment on persons in areas under its control. AMISOM alleged that
al-Shabaab tortured residents in el-Baraf for
offenses ranging from failure to pay taxes to being a government agent (see
sections 1.a. and 1.g.). In September al-Shabaab militants attacked local
villagers in Galmudug State who had refused to
contribute livestock and small arms, according to an international press
report, leaving 30 residents dead after a pitched battle. Torture and other
cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment at the hands of clan
militias, some of which are government-affiliated, remained frequent. There
remained a culture of impunity due to clan protection of perpetrators and
weak government capacity to hold the guilty to account. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS With the exception
of newly built facilities, prison conditions in most areas of the country
remained harsh. Poor sanitation and hygiene, inadequate food and water, and
lack of medical care were the norm. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/somalia/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 13 May
2020] IS THERE AN
INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY?
- The judicial system in Somalia is fractured, understaffed, and rife with
corruption. Its authority is not widely respected, with state officials
ignoring court rulings and citizens often turning to customary law or
interpretations of Sharia as alternatives. In recent years, the office of the
president has removed judges and members of the Judicial Service Commission
in contravention of the provisional constitution. President Abdullahi has promised to reform the judiciary, but the
chief justice’s September 2017 suspension of 18 judges—in what was seen as
part of the reform effort—may have also been unconstitutional. DOES DUE PROCESS PREVAIL
IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL MATTERS? - Safeguards against arbitrary arrest and
detention are not observed by the country’s police, intelligence, and
military services, whose performance is also undermined by corruption. Clan
politics and other external factors often play a role in the outcome of court
cases. Military courts routinely try civilians, including for
terrorism-related offenses, and do not respect basic international standards
for due process. IS THERE PROTECTION
FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND
INSURGENCIES?
- The ongoing civil conflict featured numerous terrorist attacks on
government, international, and civilian targets during 2017. In October, a
coordinated pair of truck bombings in Mogadishu killed more than 500 people,
making it the deadliest such attack in the conflict to date. Government security
services, international troops, and various local militias have also been
implicated in indiscriminate lethal violence and the use of excessive force against
civilians. Authorities carry out executions ordered by military courts after
flawed proceedings. Detainees are at risk of torture in custody, and
perpetrators generally enjoy impunity. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] SOMALIA ATTACKS ON MEDIA - Government harassment
and intimidation of journalists in Mogadishu, particularly by NISA, and
threats against media outlets increased. On February 11, NISA detained
Mohamed Haji Bare from Radio Danan and Ibrahim
Mohamed from Radio Haatuf, for three days, beating
them severely and threatening them, reportedly for taking photos of a deputy
governor previously injured in a car bomb. SIMHA Condemns
Radio Journalists arrest and torture Somalicurrent, 18 Aug 2014 www.somalicurrent.com/2014/08/18/simha-condemns-radio-journalists-arrest-and-torture/ [accessed 15
September 2014] waagacusub.net/articles/542/SIMHA-strongly-condemns-the-mass-detention-of-Journalists [accessed 2 August
2017] Somali independent
Media House Association denounces with strongest terms possible the arrest
and hence the extreme torture meted against Radio Shabelle
director and Sky FM journalist. Released Shabelle staff has confirmed to SIMHA that the chairman
of Radio Shabelle and the director of Sky FM who
were arrested last week by Somali Intelligence personnel were extremely
tortured while in prison. “They are under
constant horrendous torture and they need urgent interventions,” said of the
released journalist who will not disclose his name for security reasons. Security Forces
Open Torture Chembers in Mogadishu Dalsan Radio, 6 June 2014 allafrica.com/stories/201406061163.html [accessed 8 June
2014] somaliamediamonitoring.org/june-6-2014-daily-monitoring-report/ [accessed 30 August
2016] [scroll down to 06
Jun- Source: Radio Dalsan] "They stopped
my car. Then I told them that I am a businessman. One of them said they
suspected me. Then they took me to a house where they tortured me". Gurey said. A lady who resides
in the next house came out and asked them who the victim was that night and
then they replied "we are torturing one stubborn man from the Diaspora. Amanda Lindhout tells of her captivity, torture in Somalia The Canadian Press,
18 August 2013 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2013/08/18/calgary-lindhout-book-release-el.html [accessed 20 Aug
2013] Amanda Lindhout was
captured in Somalia in 2008 while working as a freelance journalist and held
captive for more than a year. After about a year
of being starved, beaten and sexually brutalized, Amanda Lindhout decided it
was time to kill herself. The Alberta woman,
taken hostage in Somalia in August 2008, says she reached her breaking point
after spending three days trussed up like an animal, her hands and feet pulled
so tightly behind her back that she could barely breathe. When her captors
did untie her, they told her it was only a reprieve. They promised to use the
same torture technique on her again each day until they got their ransom
money. Ex-Somali colonel
faces civil trial in Va. alleging torture Associated Press AP,
Alexandria VA, 13 May 2019 wtop.com/local/2019/05/ex-somali-colonel-faces-civil-trial-in-va-alleging-torture/ [accessed 14 May
2019] Warfaa was jailed for
several months and was regularly stripped naked and beaten, Klein said. He was also hogtied
in a stress position called the “Mig,” which Klein
said “was so excruciatingly painful, so unbearable,
it would cause Farhan to go unconscious.” Ali would
personally supervise many of these sessions, Klein said. In a final
interrogation in early 1988, Klein said resistance fighters attacked Ali’s
brigade in the middle of questioning. At that point, Klein said, Ali shot Warfaa multiple times while he lay on the ground,
shackled. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 DIRECT TARGETING OF
CIVILIANS
- Al-Shabab factions continued to torture and
unlawfully kill people they accused of spying or not conforming to their own interpretation
of Islamic law. They killed people in public, including by stoning, and
carried out amputations and floggings. They also imposed restrictive behavioural codes on women and men. Three men were
reportedly shot and killed in public by al-Shabab
members in Merka in July. They were accused of
spying for the CIA and UK intelligence service MI6, and of being responsible
for drone attacks. A woman was
abducted and beheaded in August near Baidoa. Days
before, al-Shabab had reportedly threatened her to
stop her selling tea to government forces in the area. Extrajudicial
executions, arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment were reportedly
carried out in Baidoa and Beletweyne
by militias allied to the government, often in response to ongoing insecurity
and attacks by al-Shabab. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=somalia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 13 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61592.htm [accessed 12
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61592.htm [accessed 5 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The
unimplemented Transitional Federal Charter (TFC) prohibits torture, and the
Puntland Charter prohibits torture "unless sentenced by Islamic Shari'a courts in accordance with Islamic law";
however, there were some reports of the use of torture by the Puntland and
Somaliland administrations and warring militiamen against each other or
against civilians. Observers believed that many incidents of torture were not
reported. Prison guards beat inmates in prison. Security forces,
police, and militias also abused and beat persons during the year. During a
January 26 to February 7 mission to Somaliland, the UNIE noted an increase in
police brutality in Somaliland. Acts of violence, including several killings,
continued against TFG supporters or members (see section 1.a.). On February 2,
16-year-old Zamzam Ahmed Dualeh
was unconditionally freed by authorities and released into the custody of the
UNIE. In August 2004 in Hargeisa, Somaliland police arrested and detained Dualeh and Omar Jama Warsame,
her taxi driver, on espionage charges; both allegedly were beaten in
detention, and Dualeh claimed that six policemen
tortured and raped her. In December 2004 Dualeh was
tried as an adult without legal representation and sentenced to five years'
imprisonment. The four attorneys retained by local human rights activists to
represent Dualeh were detained and sentenced to
four years' imprisonment after they asked the judge to withdraw from the case
due to alleged bias; in December 2004 the attorneys were released on appeal
after they paid a fine. No action
reportedly was taken against Somaliland or Puntland forces, warlord
supporters, or members of militias responsible for torturing, beating,
raping, or otherwise abusing persons in 2004 or 2003. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Somalia", http://gvnet.com/torture/Somalia.htm, [accessed <date>] |
