19 May 2007 04:19

SOMALIA WATCH

 
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  • Title: [SW Country] (Puntin) New Round of Atrocities in Kismayo
  • Posted by/on:[AAJ][17 Feb 2001]

 

A New Round of Atrocities in Kismayo

from Puntin - http://www.puntin.org

 

Kismayo, a city 500 kilometers to the south of Mogadishu, has witnessed a series of atrocities since the civil war started.  The city changed hands many a time in the course of Somalia’s civil war, and each militia group that laid hands on it had to proclaim a new brand of inhuman treatment. The latest reports from that city show that those acts of atrocities like rape, murder and extortion of money still remain unabated.

Kismayo has been invaded and captured by SNF-USC militias led by Ahmed Barre Hirale after they wrested the control of the city from the SPM militia led by General Adan Nur Gabyow and General Mohamed Said Morgan. SNF-USC has started a campaign of terror, rape and inhuman treatment against the inhabitants of Kismayo.  It is saddening that the latest victims of these atrocities are all women. PUNTIN got the names of some of these victims as shown by the table below.

 

#

Name

Clan

1

Safiyo Jama Cigaal

Amartiwaq (Majeerteen)

2

Caasha Salaad Cawil

Ciise Maxamoud (Majeerteen)

3

Sacdiyo Cumar Naley

Tunni

4

Saynab Mohamed Indha-cade

Nuux Maxamoud

5

Shariifo Maxamoud Caddaw   

Nuux Maxamoud

6

Sahra Cusman Omar

Majeerteen (Ciise Maxamoud)

7

Sahra Xasan Jama

Majeereteen (Cumar Maxamoud)

8

Aamina Abdi Mohamoud

- Ogaden (Makaahiil)

9

Dugsiyo Maxamad

Ogadeen (Makaahiil)

10

Faadumo Kaatun Ciise -

Dir

11

Qaali Xasan Kullaal

Ogaden (Bah Geri)

12

Awliyo Xasan Kulaal

Ogaden (Bah Geri)

The latest acts of inhumanity are part of a wider campaign to uproot the non-allied clans from the area and make Kismayo area an own-city.

The city had witnessed similar clan-cleansing atrocities (click on the hyperlink to read about the topic) in the past. In 1992, the SPM-SNA militia led by Col. Ahmed Omar Jess captured and struck the city with terror in his attempt to eliminate the “non-desirables” (in his terms) from the city. His militia had targeted the most prominent members of the Harti clan in the city including medical doctors, traditional community leaders and intellectuals and murdered them in cold blood.

The militias now active in Kismayo has captured the city from the SPM and allied itself with the newly formed Arta Group which claims to be “an interim Somali government”

The Arta Group, contrary to its claim that it will pave the way for genuine Somali reconciliation, had sent logistics to the militias controlling the city while it was known to all Somalis that these atrocities were being committed against the city inhabitants on daily basis. It has been the subject of heated debate among the Arta members on Arta Faction’s inconsistency with the claim that it will play a pivotal role in the Somali reconciliation while it is at the same time siding and arming one of the parties in the Kismayo conflict..

In a letter to PUNTIN, women groups in Kismayo call on the international community for intervention. The letter adds that the city inhabitants cannot complain to the international community for fear of reprisal.  


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