Informal Note on the Press Conference by Ms. Mona Rishmawi, Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia

Geneva, 8 April 1998



Introducing her report, Ms. Mona Rishmawi said international interest on Somalia had significantly dropped since 1992. The situation in the country was extremely grim; it had no system of communication, no roads, no basic infrastructure. Attention needed to be refocused on Somalia to help the Somali come out of this situation. During the last three months, efforts were made to bring the Somali factions to the negotiating table in Cairo. Unfortunately the Cairo agreement was not implemented. Fighting continued on the ground and the airport in Mogadishu was not opened, as requested by the agreement. There was therefore little progress on the political level.

Ms. Rishmawi said the lack of total infrastructure and Government led humanitarian relief agencies to step in. They acted under very difficult conditions. She mentioned, in her report, several cases of kidnapping of humanitarian workers as well as the very disturbing case of a Portuguese doctor who was assassinated on June 20 of last year in Baidoa. To date the killer was not found. This latter case led to the withdrawal of the entire relief and humanitarian agencies from that area. As a result no one was there to monitor and assess the situation.

In her report, Ms. Rishmawi also mentioned other issues such as landmines. A large number of persons were handicapped by the land mines randomly scattered through out the country. Although efforts were made to clear the mines, these were not going ahead. As a result the relatively stable areas could not be rehabilitated as the international agencies themselves were afraid to step in to undertake reconstruction work. The Special Rapporteur called for the clearance of landmines in stable areas. The North-West of Somalia was stable; one could see regular law enforcement officials, open airports; persons could follow a semi-normal life. The North-East of the country was heavily affected by the floods, so it was more difficult to assess the situation there. Nevertheless, there were some kind of law enforcement agencies.

Ms. Rishmawi went to the North-West of Somalia to look into allegations of mass graves. She saw pictures of the site which was uncovered and spoke to reliable people, including foreign independent experts who lived in Hargeisa. Clearly people were tied, lined, shot and then dumped in these holes. That was the period in 1988, when the Siad Barre troops were acting against the area in the north west of Somalia. Ms. Rishmawi said two forensic experts were sent there in December and came back confirming that were evidence for mass graves in that area and possible other sites.

Concerning the problematic issue of the behaviour of the Belgium, Canadian and Italian soldiers which surfaced during the year, Ms. Rishmawi said she had been pushing the question of investigation saying that these countries had a duty, as signatories of the Geneva Convention, to fully investigate these allegations and to bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes. In reply to her letter, the three countries had really cooperated, Ms. Rishmawi said. Canada had sent her an extensive report, available on Internet, an impressive piece of work of 2000 pages of a report of the Commission of enquiry set up to look at this issues. The Commission forwarded its work in June 1997, which raised heavy criticism from the part of the press and from the Commission itself. They thought that they were pushed to wrap up their work before they were able to reach formal conclusions. They also mentioned very disturbing things about the lack of cooperation from, in particular, the military.

Other countries should follow suite to have an open process in which these issues are fully investigated, Ms. Rishmawi underlined. She was hoping that the Canadian example would encourage other States like Italy and Belgium to take the same kind of approach with the same openness in the matter. She added that she endedher report with a recommendation which, as she understood, the High Commissioner was going to act on. She recommended, as part of the UN strategy to make human rights an ongoing activity in Somalia, that a permanent human rights officer be placed in the field and based in Nairobi.

The Somali people should not be abandoned, Ms. Rishmawi said, adding that there were three areas in which there were possibilities of modest but yet constructive and possibly solid human rights work that could be done in Somalia. This presence and efforts to put human rights on the table of negotiations between the rival factions could help a great deal. In areas where there were some stability and rehabilitation, the independent expert noted, people felt they were incredibly isolated, that their work, their attempt to bring about security had not been recognised. There were also a lot of training programs, but this was going on without a human rights angle. In these conditions, she stated that “ When the Somali conflict ends, we would end up with a country that has no basic understanding of human rights values”. Concrete effort had to be made to make sure that the Somali were not abandoned and isolated from the momentum of the 50th anniversary of the human rights Declaration.

Responding to a question on why the international community had given up the Somali issues, Ms.Rishmawi said they were several dimensions to this situation. First, she believed it depended on the media reports on the issue. Furthermore, and to be fair, she said people were intimidated by the complexity of the situation. She explained that it was very difficult even to walk in the streets in Somalia. There was actual fighting between clans. It was a dangerous place for the international community and also for the civilians who lived in Somalia. Women and children were not protected, killed or handicapped on a daily basis.

A correspondent noted that the report did not mention the introduction of the Sharia in the northern part of Mogadisciu. The expert said that this was part of the complexity of the situation. There was no doubt that in Somalia a lot people would think that any future rule should be based on Sharia. In a country where the civil system had collapsed, the only thing the people had some confidence in was the traditional system and the religious system. These rules, unacceptable here, were understood by the Somali as issues of stability not as human rights issues. Since there was no law and order, this traditional system stepped in to enforce some kind of stability and saturated. She added that there was no doubt that the Sharia was not applied throughout the country and there were various forms that were applied in some parts. She considered that enforcements of judgements, including the cutting of hands, which were applied in north Mogadisciu were against international law.

On the possible perspectives for human rights assistance in Somalia, Ms. Rishmawi said she outlined three areas which she thought were essential. First was the support for human rights defenders who work in very difficult conditions inside the country. The second area was the integration of human rights into the work of the agencies on the country level as advocated by the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner. Thirdly it was important to rehabilitate the militia and law enforcement officials, not to mention the growing role of women in Somalia.

Asked to be more concrete about the integration of human rights into work of agencies, Ms. Rishmawi replied that was the main aspect of the work of the human right officer to be placed there and who would be working systematically with the agencies. He would help to find concrete means to integrate the human rights component to the agencies work. To a question on whether the High Commissioner had appointed an officer, Ms. Rishmawi said that to her understanding Italy, who presented a resolution on Somalia, had made a statement today in which it welcomed the High Commissioner decision to appoint an officer.

Responding to another question about the mass graves, the expert replied that people want to know the truth, of families who would like to know what happened to their relatives. On the other hand, she added, some of the alleged perpetrators were actually living in Somalia; some were among those who controlled some regions of Somalia; some of them were called on by the international community to negotiate a settlement on Somalia. There were issues of justice, and there were evidence that these were mass graves. These issues could not be dealt with by the legal system in Somalia. So, what was at stake, Ms. Rishmawi pointed out, was preserving this evidence with the hope that when there was an international court, or a similar process, or even a process of reconciliation in Somalia, that these issues were not forgotten.