Somalia Rape Victim Convicted for Lying

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A 19-year-old woman who alleged she was raped has been given a suspended jail sentence by a Somalia court.

Human Rights groups say sexual abuse is a growing problem in Somalia (photo courtesy of AFP)

The woman, who spent three weeks in pre-trial detention, was convicted of defamation and lying and told she could not leave Mogadishu. Two journalists who reported her story were also convicted of the same offense.

The two men accused of raping the woman have not been brought before a court.

During the time of the suspended jail sentence, the woman will be confined to her home, said Judge Hashi Elmi Nur.

The journalists are to serve out their sentences, of one year and six months respectively, or pay a fine in order to win early release.

This is the second time this year that Somalia has jailed a woman for speaking out about rape and journalists for interviewing her.

Spokesman Ridwaan Haji said war-torn Somalia’s courts were in their “infancy” and needed time to improve.

He also said that while the government stopped “a free pass and freedom of speech,” journalists were also obliged to “take their role in society seriously and demonstrate social responsibility.”

The Somalia government has said previously that sexual violence is unacceptable.

The BBC’s Mohamed Moalimu in Mogadishu says the case raised fears among journalists about reporting rape.

The woman in this case has accused two men from the state-run Radio Mogadishu of raping her at gunpoint.

Last month Human Rights Watch called on the government to order a new and impartial investigation into the case, saying the response to the incident “has been marred by mismanagement, opacity, and the harassment of the female rape survivor and support service providers.”

This “points to security officials trying to silence both those who report the pervasive problems of sexual violence and those who help rape survivors,” HRW said.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

Eighteen media professionals were killed in Somalia in 2012, the east African country’s deadliest year on record, according to reports.

At least six media reporters have been killed this year.

In August, a Somali woman who said she was gang raped by African Union (AU) soldiers was held by police for questioning.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – Somalia court sentences ‘rape victim’ – 9 December 2013
Horseed Media – Somali court sentences alleged rape victim, journalists – 9 December 2013
News.com.au – Somali court sentences alleged rape victim, journalists – 9 December 2013
The Hindu – Rape victim in Somalia sentenced, govt. defends court – 11 December 2013
The Nation – Somali court sentences alleged rape victim, journalists – 10 December 2013
The Daily Star – Somali court sentences alleged rape victim, journalists – 9 December 2013
News 24 – Somali ‘rape’ victim, journos sentenced – 9 December 2013

 

Thousands of Eritreans Abducted for Ransom

By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

ASMARA, Eritrea – Up to 30,000 Eritreans have been abducted since 2007 and taken to Egypt’s Sinai to suffer torture and ransom demands, new research says.

Tens of thousands have been severely injured from being captured (photo courtesy of BBC)

The study, presented to the European parliament, says Eritrean and Sudanese security officers are plotting with the kidnap gangs.

The report focuses on the trafficking of refugees from the Horn of Africa who are targeted by criminal networks for extortion and exploitation. The report looks at the experiences of the refugees who have fled their countries looking for safety and security.

The captives are threatened with being sold to people traffickers if they do not raise tens of thousands of dollars. Some are freed if they raise the ransoms. Others are sold on to traffickers, even after money has changed hands, only to be tortured to extract further cash from relatives.

At least $600m has been extorted from families in ransom payments, the report says.

Eritrea has denied its officials are involved in the kidnappings. The report, however, says Eritrea’s Border Surveillance Unit (BSU) and Sudanese security officials are among the “actors” conspiring with the gangs that hold people hostage in the largely lawless Sinai.  

Most of those targeted are Eritrean refugees fleeing the country.

Almost every Eritrean knows somebody who has been held hostage.

“Their captors are opportunistic criminals looking to profit from their vulnerability,” the report says.

“[The victims] are then taken to the Sinai and sold, sometimes more than once, to Bedouin groups living in Sinai.”

These hostages include men, women, children, and infants fleeing from desperate circumstances in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. An estimated 95% are from Eritrea.

Many of the hostages die in captivity or after their release. Some simply disappear – killed while being held, shot by border guards, or from just being lost in the desert.

The study interviewed an Eritrean woman living in Sweden who told them her son was abducted from the camp. He and six other children were forced into a car by a high-ranking Sawa military officer and driven into Sudan. Once there, they were made to call their parents, who were given three days to pay $7,500 or they would be sold to traffickers.

“[The hostages] are chained together without toilets or washing facilities and dehydrated, starved, and deprived of sleep,” the report says.

“They are subject to threats of death and organ harvesting . . . . Those who attempt to escape are severely tortured.”

The report said trafficking would have been impossible without the direct involvement of Eritrean security officials, given the “restrictions on movement within the country, the requirement of exit visas at the border and the shoot-to-kill policy for illegal border crossing.”

Eritrea’s UK ambassador said Eritrea is a “victim of human trafficking” and that the government was “working hard” to arrest and bring justice to justice criminal gangs operating along its border.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – Thousands of Eritreans ‘abducted to Sinai for ransom’ – 4 December 2013
Free Republic – Thousands of Eritreans ‘abducted to Sinai for ransom’ – 6 December 2013
WADR – Thousands of Eritreans ‘abducted to Sinai for ransom’ – 5 December 2013
Agencia Angola Press – Thousands of Eritreans ‘abducted to Sinai for ransom’ – 7 December 2013
allAfrica – Eritrea: The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond – 2 December 2013
The Guardian – Eritrea’s military is trafficking the nation’s children, report says – 3 December 2013

 

Attack on Yemen’s Defense Ministry Leaves 52 Dead

By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANA’A, Yemen-The heavily guarded defenses ministry compound was attacked by a suicide bomber and gunmen yesterday, resulting in the death of 52 doctors and nurses as well as injuring 162 people.

The defense ministry in Sana’a after a car bomb explosion (photo courtesy of The New York Times)

No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but a Yemeni expert on Islamist militant affairs stated that it had the characteristics of al Qaeda, who have repeatedly attacked government officials and sites over the past two years.

Abdelrazzaq al-Jamal, a Yemeni analyst who specializes in Islamist militant affairs, stated, “the operation carries the fingerprints of al Qaeda because of the suicide nature of the attack.”

The U.S. military issued its alert status throughout the region after the coordinated strikes on Yemen, an ally and what Washington believes to be the home to the most active branch of al Qaeda.

The area poses a security threat for the international community.  The impoverished Yemen shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, as well as key shipping lanes.

One of the attackers drove a loaded car with explosives through the gate of the ministry’s compound while a gunmen in another vehicle sped in and opened fire on soldiers, doctors, and nurses all working at hospital inside, reported witnesses.

The explosion rippled throughout the city, shaking the active neighborhood of Bab al-Yemen on the edge of the capital.  The area is known for its maze of market stalls and stone towers that are decorated with stained glass windows and ornate plasterwork.

One employee working the area reported that “the explosion was very violent, the whole place shook because of it.”

A defense ministry official reported that the gunmen grabbed a Western doctor and a Filipino nurse into the courtyard of the hospital and shot them in front of local staff.  It was also reported that the attackers killed one of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s relatives, who was visiting a patient in the onsite hospital.

The bloodshed ceased when security forces retook the compound after killing most all of the attackers.

For more information, please see the following:

New York Times-Attack on Yemen’s Defense Headquarters Is Linked to Al Qaeda-06 December 2013

Al Jazeera-Doctors killed in Yemen’s ministry assault-05 December 2013

Reuters-Suicide bomber, gunmen kill 52 at Yemeni defense ministry-05 December 2013

Voice of America-Yemen: Suicide Car Bomb, Assault Kill 52-05 December 2013

Egyptian Authorities Continue to Crack Down on The Right of The Egyptian People to Protest

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – According to Egypt’s Interior ministry, Egyptian police have arrested dozens of Islamist protesters Friday while dispersing demonstration rallies across the country.

Ahmed Maher, centre left, the leader of the April 6 youth group that helped lead the 2011 uprising that led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, tries to hand himself over to Egyptian prosecutors. (Photo Courtesy of The Guardian)

In Cairo, police fired tear gas into crowds in the Mohandiseen neighbourhood, a middle class community in the capital city, in order to disperse demonstrators who gathered outside a mosque after mid-day prayers.

Egyptian authorities have targets Islamist activists and supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi since he was forced from power by the Egyptian military in July. However, attacks on attacks on civilian rights by authorities have not been limited to right leaning Islamist activist.

Egypt’s public prosecutor Ahmed Maher, a leading political activist in Egypt, for trial on Thursday. According to a judicial official his charges will include protesting without government permission. Wael Shibl, the prosecutor, said Maher will also face other charges including allegedly assaulting police and “resisting the authorities”. He will be the first to be charged under a new law of a new law which has been criticized for limiting the right of Egyptian people to protest.

Ahmed Maher is a well-known activists, he is the founder and leader of the April 6 youth group that played a major role in encouraging Egyptian youth to protests against the Mubarak regime in 2011 which eventually led to the fall of the oppressive Hosni Mubarak regime.

Last week, Maher compared the current oppressive climate in Egypt to the political climate in 2008, before the fall of President Mubarak in 2011. He said “when I was hiding and trying to escape the police, and trying to make my wife and family safe”.

Last week, another high-profile activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, was arrested in a violent raid during which his wife claims he was assaulted by police. Abd El Fattah has been targeting by every Egyptian regime since Hosni Mubarak’s brutal regime. Activists claim his arrest, and alleged abuse by police, is evidence that the interim government is being led by the military back into the dark days of the Mubarak regime.

Abd El Fattah’s arrested followed the sentencing of 14 women and young girls to 11 years in prison for participating in pro-Morsi demonstrations. Human rights organizations have accused the government of severely curtailing the right of the people to protest through the use of a legal process that the United Nations has called seriously flawed.”

For further information please see:

Al Jazeera – Dozens of Protesters Arrested In Egypt – 6 December 2013

Reuters – Egyptian Police Fired Tear Gas to End Clashes In Cairo – 6 December 2013

The Guardian – Egypt Charges Three Top Activists over Cairo Protest – 5 December 2013

The Guardian – Egyptian Activist Arrested Amid Government Crackdown on Dissent – 29 November 2013