Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC)
31 March 2008
press release
Statement prepared by Human Rights Watch for the "Arria formula" meeting on Somalia
Thank you for inviting Human Rights Watch to share our concerns over the human rights crisis in Somalia. My name is Georgette Gagnon and I am the director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch welcomes this initiative by the United Nations Security Council to discuss the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Somalia. The situation in Somalia is one of the world's starkest and most neglected tragedies. In basic human terms the scope of the crisis is enormous. It is also a situation with serious regional implications that must be squarely addressed by the Security Council.
Since early 2007, thousands of civilians have been killed in appalling circumstances: crushed to death in their homes after indiscriminate bombardment; injured by shrapnel from mortars, heavy artillery, and bullets and dying slow, agonizing deaths when they are unable to reach medical care; deliberately executed by members of armed groups on all sides; and caught in ceaseless crossfire in densely-populated neighborhoods. Thousands more have been injured, assaulted, raped, and looted of all their property as they fled the violence in Mogadishu. Each day adds to the toll of civilian deaths and injuries.
Up to 700,000 people have been displaced by violence from their homes in Mogadishu in the past year, with 50,000 people displaced in the first months of 2008 alone. These newly displaced people join some 400,000 people who were previously displaced, plus several hundred thousand Somali refugees, for a total of more than one million internally displaced people in south-central Somalia-at least ten percent of the entire population.
UN agencies currently estimate that up to sixty percent of Mogadishu's residents have fled the city. Many people remain camped on the fringes of the capital in squalid camps. Malnutrition rates are reportedly rising among children. Humanitarian agencies face huge challenges in their efforts to provide assistance to the displaced people and other vulnerable groups living in other areas of Somalia, partly due to continuing obstruction, but also due to serious security concerns. Compounding the humanitarian needs, the poor rains are contributing to increased fear of drought across the region.
Regional factors
There is no question that serious security concerns persist in Somalia. The country has been stateless for seventeen years, with millions of people under the thrall of warlords. The arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council has been poorly enforced, and Somalia's internal crisis is exacerbated both by the ongoing tension between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and by US counterterrorism initiatives in the region.
The failure to resolve the Ethiopian-Eritrean border dispute has led to each country supporting opposing sides in Somalia: Ethiopia, backed by the US, supports the weak, but internationally-recognized Transitional Federal Government, while a variety of Ethiopian insurgent groups as well as Somali armed groups reportedly rely on substantial military and financial support from Eritrea.
Patterns of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Somalia
Human Rights Watch has closely monitored, documented and reported on patterns of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Somalia. In 2007, our researchers conducted an in-depth investigation of abuses connected to the hostilities in Mogadishu. We interviewed scores of eyewitnesses in five different locations, including Mogadishu, and published a comprehensive report on our findings. We continue to document crimes committed in Mogadishu and other areas through research in the region and from afar.
Each of the parties to the armed conflict has committed serious violations of international humanitarian law. In some cases, where individuals knowingly or recklessly committed these violations, the violations amount to war crimes.
Violations by the forces allied to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG)
Although TFG forces have played a secondary role in much of the indiscriminate bombardment of Mogadishu, they have been responsible for a variety of attacks against civilians in Mogadishu. These include widespread pillaging and looting of civilian property; rape; attacks on humanitarian workers; mass arbitrary arrests and mistreatment of detainees. The TFG has also failed to provide effective warnings to civilians of impending military operations, interfered with and sometimes obstructed delivery of humanitarian assistance, and repeatedly closed independent media outlets. To date there have been no apparent efforts by the TFG to investigate or prosecute those responsible for the killings of journalists and human rights activists in Somalia, much less other abuses reported by human rights organizations.
Violations by Ethiopian National Defence Forces
Since intervening in Somalia in support of the TFG in 2006, Ethiopian troops have violated fundamental provisions of international humanitarian law by failing to distinguish between civilians and military objectives. For example, Ethiopian troops repeatedly used "area bombardment" in populated urban areas in response to insurgent attacks. These indiscriminate attacks killed and wounded hundreds of civilians. Hospitals were deliberately targeted in some of the early offensives in March-April 2007. Ethiopian forces have also carried out targeted attacks on civilians, including killings of civilians by snipers and summary executions of individuals in their custody.
Since late 2007, when new Ethiopian troops were rotated into Mogadishu, reports of unlawful killings by Ethiopian and TFG troops in the context of house-to-house searches increased significantly. Several reports describe Ethiopian troops slitting the throats of victims, including, in one case reported to Human Rights Watch, that of a two-year-old child. Amnesty International has also collected many reports of killings conducted in this manner, which eyewitnesses described as "slaughtering like goats." Looting of civilian property has also been reported in the context of these searches, which generally follow insurgent attacks in the neighborhood.
Violations by insurgent forces
The term "insurgent forces" is used here to describe a range of anti-TFG and anti-Ethiopian forces. These include the extremist al-Shabaab militia, supporters of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, and clan-based fighters loosely known among many Somalis as muqaawama (resistance).
Insurgent forces have repeatedly and indiscriminately attacked civilians with mortars, small arms and remote explosive devices; killed and mutilated captured combatants on several occasions; killed TFG officials and threatened civilians, including journalists and aid workers; and jeopardized civilians through their deployment in densely populated areas.
Attacks on the media, civil society, humanitarian aid workers
Somali civil society has flourished in the seventeen years since the collapse of the Siad Barre government, yet even this positive development has been marred by the developments in Mogadishu since early 2007. Attacks on journalists, human rights defenders and humanitarian aid workers have significantly increased in the highly politicized environment of the past fifteen months.
Eight Somali journalists were killed in 2007, making it the most devastating year for Somali journalism since 1991. Responsibility for many of these attacks is unclear. The TFG has repeatedly closed independent media outlets such as Shabelle Media Network, HornAfrik, and other smaller radio stations serving Mogadishu, contending, often without any justification, that the broadcasts incited violence. Several journalists were detained for long periods without charge, apparently in an effort to suppress independent reporting.
Addressing the human rights crisis: ending impunity, introducing accountability
The human rights crisis in Somalia demands an international response that is commensurate with the gravity and scale of the crimes. The UN Security Council should clearly condemn abuses by all of the warring parties in Somalia and include relevant, specific language in its statements and resolutions stressing its support for accountability for serious international crimes. The Security Council and its member states should privately and publicly call on all parties to cease abuses, including TFG and Ethiopian armed forces.
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