Garowe Online (Garowe)
10 November 2007
As Somalia descends into deeper chaos, reporters and media networks continue to face continued harassment and arbitrary detentions from various authorities across the country.
A total of eight Somali journalists have been killed in the country so far this year, according to media watch groups. Most incidents involving violations on the free press disproportionately take place in Mogadishu, including the targeted killings of two prominent media personalities since August.
But the recent outbreak of warfare in north Somalia between the separatist government of Somaliland and the Puntland regional autonomy showed that journalists are not safe in any part of the country.
Mohamed Ali Elmi, a reporter with Radio Las Anod, was arrested by Somaliland security forces on October 25 while covering anti-Somaliland riots. Although he was later released, his equipment has not been returned to him yet.
Somaliland forces arrested more than 50 people that day, including the Radio Las Anod reporter.
In an interview with Radio Garowe, Mr. Elmi said he was hit with the back of an assault rifle during the initial arrest.
"We are taken to Oog [Somaliland army base, 100km west of Las Anod] and some of us were beaten by the soldiers [there]," Mr. Elmi said.
After Oog, Elmi and fellow prisoners were taken to a jail in Burao, capital of Togdheer region in Somaliland. He said he was never informed of why he was detained during the trip from Las Anod to Burao.
The treatment at the Burao jail was not as bad as the initial arrest, Mr. Elmi said. But he said the major problem remained lack of freedom and the unsanitary conditions of the jail.
"We were allowed to have visitors and to use the phones...but we were in the same room with murderers and insane inmates," he said. Some inmates with serious cases of cholera were taken to the hospital during Mr. Elmi's 15-day stay in jail.
The jail has the capacity to hold 150 prisoners but Somaliland authorities keep roughly 350 prisoners there, Mr. Elmi said.
"I was most surprised by over 100 people from southern Somalia who have committed no crime but were arrested for their [Somali] accent, mostly people known as [Somali] Bantu, even some who lost their kids in Burao," Mr. Elmi said.
He said most prisoners in Somaliland are sentenced by a five-member "security committee" with no courts or due process of law, adding that he witnessed "great injustice" inside the Somaliland-run jail.
Mr. Elmi expressed his gratitude to many groups who participated in efforts for his release. He thanked local elders, media organizations including Voice of America and HornAfrik, and a Somaliland lawmaker named Said Haji who intervened on his behalf.
The continued abuse of reporters across Somalia has become the norm in a country where searching for the truth can get you killed.
There is no doubt that many parties to the Somali conflict want to silence the truth and to hide their hideous acts from the public.
Many journalists have fled Mogadishu over the past three months after increased death threats and the brutal continuation of the capital' s endless cycle of violence.
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