7 November 2008
The United Nations envoy tasked with advocating for children caught up in armed conflict today voiced her horror at last week's stoning to death of a 13-year-old Somali girl who was a victim of rape.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, issued a statement condemning the killing and calling for better protection for children in Somalia, which remains beset by widespread fighting.
"The incident highlights the extreme nature of violence against children and women in Somalia, which haThe incident highlights the extreme nature of violence against children and women in Somalias been heightened by the increasing lawlessness," she said.
Aisha Duhulow was stoned to death in a stadium full of spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo on 27 October after authorities found her guilty of adultery.
But reports indicate that she had been raped by three men while walking to visit her grandmother in the capital Mogadishu. After the attack, Aisha asked for protection from prosecutors, who in turn accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death.
According to media reports, Aisha pleaded for her life before she was forced into a hole, buried up to her neck and then pelted with stones by some 50 men until she died in front of more than 1,000 people.
In her statement Ms. Coomaraswamy also raised concerns about the widespread recruitment and use of children as soldiers by all parties to the conflict in Somalia, which has not had a functioning national government since 1991. Children are being killed or maimed on a daily basis as a result of military operations, she added.
"It is the duty of the international community and the local authorities to stop these violations and to ensure better protection for children. No efforts should be spared."
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This savagery must end. this is one of the reasons that Afrika is held back in its development. For the sake of God this cannot be true. The ignorant men who passed this judgement will be judged themselves very brutally because custom and culture does not negate the innate concept of good and evil all are born with. This has nothing to do with Islam or christianity. This is all to do with backwardness and ignorance of the higest order.
It is stories like these that make me cringe and upset with some so-called Panafricanist who heap scorn at the International Criminal Court for indicting only Africans. As far as I am concern those who stoned this child should be held liable for murder, pure and simple. She was raped and then she was executed. Who said that blame the victim is a thing of the past. My heart sink and I cannot possibly have a nice day today having read the story. It is so sad and an abomination.
Shame to perpetrators and prosecutors in the war-tone and blood filled country. Please enough is enough May God bless her
This is truly atrocious!how dare they!!!just who gave man the right to take somebody's life into their own hands in the first place?the abhorrent nature of this shameful torture infuriates and saddens me at the same time.i can't even begin to imagine how the poor little girl felt.Shame on you somalians!!!SHAME ON YOU!!i wonder how you'd feel if someone did the same thing to your own kindred.
And just how come the UN envoy took a whole week to express her horror?a whole week???i think they need to make major reforms on their advocation strategy!and it's time the somalian government stood up for it's people...just once.This is truly shameful!
God bless this little girl this so called man of law should have the same thing done to them, but their stoning should last 13 years. God forgive me for my anger.
while Bush is so busy meddling in foreign countries where his dumb ass don't belong, why doesn't he intervene in a place such as Somalia to hang the perpetrators of this heinous crime. There should be a mission-takeover of this particular country and countries of the like, in the name of crimes against humanity.
Painful, painful, painful that,s all I can say.We must learn to respect ourselves and family as well as others children.It pains the heart to even think of what that child must have gone through,we wish her peace in death,Amen.