Scientists and Human Rights in Somalia: Report of a Delegation (1988)

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Background THE NAS COMMITTEE'S WORK AND SOMALIA The Committee on Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences became directly concerned about possible abuses of hu- man rights in Somalia when the cases of thirteen imprisoned scien- tific colleagues came to its attention in early 1983 (see Appendix B). The committee began gathering background information on the cases, including the reasons for the arrests, charges brought, places of imprisonment, and conditions of confinement. On the basis of the information it obtained, the committee believes that these individuals are imprisoned for the nonviolent expression of their beliefs or because they were seen by the government as polit- ical threats. The committee's information on these cases has been shared with other scientific organizations and human rights groups at home and abroad and with the U.S. Department of State and members of the U.S. Congress. For several years the committee and the Institute of Medicine sent repeated requests for information and appeals for the release of these prisoners to President Siad Barre and other government officials in Somalia. The only response ever received was a 1983 letter from the Attorney General of Somalia, Dr. Hussein Sheikh Abdirahman, which made reference to several of the prisoners for whom the committee had made inquiries (see Appendix C). The letter was a very poor mimeographed copy that had apparently been reproduced many times and was almost illegible. It said that the prisoners had been charged with national security violations, had been tried with full right to defense, found guilty, and sen- tenced on March 6, 1982. (The committee subsequently learned that two of the thirteen prisoners, Mohamed Ali Sulub, a medical doctor, and Ahmed Mohamed Madar, a biologist, were released

on October 23, 1986, along with two teachers, Mohamed Ma'alin Osman and Mohamed Abdi Je'er.) Because of the unresponsive attitude of the government of Somalia to the committee's inquiries and appeals, in early 1986 the committee decided to request an appointment with the then- ambassador of Somalia to the United States, Mohamud Hadji Nur. After some delay, an appointment with Ambassador Nur for two members and the committee's director was set for early March. Arrangements for the committee members to travel to Washington for the meeting had been made when it was discov- ered, independently, two days before the scheduled appointment, that Ambassador Nur was out of the country. The appointment was never rescheduled. In March 1987 the committee requested a meeting with the new ambassador, Abdullah! Ahmed Addou. Possibly in response to a suggestion from the then-ambassador-designate of the United States to Somalia, Frank Crigler, a meeting was scheduled for April 28. Committee members Gerard Debreu and M. Alfred Haynes and committee director Carol Corillon met with Ambas- sador Addou and Mr. Aden Mohamed Jama, the counselor for economic and commercial affairs. Ambassador Addou was told of the committee's concerns about the cases of imprisoned colleagues and its desire to send a mission of inquiry to Somalia to meet with government officials and to visit the prisoners. Ambassador Addou was very cordial, agreed to arrange the proposed mission, and said that the delegates would meet with President Siad Barre during their visit. Ambassador Addou requested, as a formality, that the committee send him a written request to undertake the mission to Somalia. This request was sent on May 8, along with a preliminary list of people in Somalia with whom the committee wished the delegates to meet. Meanwhile, in the spring of 1987, the Institute of Medicine created its Committee on Health and Human Rights, which un- dertook as one of its first activities cosponsorship of the proposed human rights mission to Somalia. In late summer, the delegates were selected, the mission was approved by the council of the National Academy of Sciences, and the dates of October 25-November 1, 1987, were set for the mission. The delegates were granted visas by the embassy of Somalia on September 16, 1987, and the terms of reference and requests for appointments were sent to Ambassador Addou. The

3 committees also arranged for the delegates to meet with members of the Committee on Human Rights of the Italian Academy of Sciences (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei) in Rome on their return from Somalia in order to brief them on the mission. Ten days before the scheduled departure of the delegates the government of Somalia asked that the mission be postponed to an unspecified future date. The reason given was that the timing was inconvenient because the arrival of the delegation on the evening of October 25 conflicted with the October 21 celebrations of the anniversary of the Somali revolution. The committees asked the government of Somalia to recon- sider its decision in light of the time, effort, and funds that had already been spent by the delegates and the short cancellation time. On October 19 the committees received word that the gov- ernment of Somalia did not want the mission to be canceled but that the timing was still inconvenient, and government authorities might not be available to meet with the delegates. The committees decided that the mission should nevertheless be undertaken at the scheduled time. TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE MISSION The purposes of the mission of inquiry to Somalia, as set forth below in the delegation's formal terms of reference, were submitted to Ambassador Addou on October 5, 1987, and subsequently to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Justice and Religious Affairs in Mogadishu: —to open lines of communication with governmental authori- ties in Somalia regarding human rights concerns; —to express the concerns of the human rights committees of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, many members of the two organizations, and the international scientific community to the authorities in Somalia regarding the continuing imprisonment of eleven scientific colleagues; —to gather information on the background, charges brought, and current legal status and physical well-being of each of the cases of the eleven imprisoned scientists; —to visit the eleven scientists in their prisons; —to present the information obtained during the mission to the members of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine;

—to compile the information obtained during the mission and publish it in a report on scientists and human rights in Somalia for distribution to interested individuals and organizations in the United States and abroad. As part of the terms of reference, the committees submitted the names of the eleven prisoners in whose behalf the mission was organized: Aden Yusuf Aboker, medical doctor Osman Abshir Abdelleh, agronomist Mohamed Barud Ali, geologist/chemist Mohamed H. Mohamoud Omer Hashi, economist Farah Hussein Ahmed, engineer Osman Abdi Megag, medical doctor Aden Warsama Said, economist Mohamed Aden Sheikh, medical doctor Mohamoud Sheikh Hassan Tani, medical doctor Abdi Ismail Yunis, mathematician Abdillahi Ali Yusuf, veterinarian In developing countries many individuals who have been for- mally trained as scientists, engineers, or health professionals work in governmental, administrative, or commercial positions. Con- versely, individuals who do not have formal academic training may work and be recognized in their countries as scientists, en- gineers, or health professionals. When dealing with prisoners of conscience in developing countries, the NAS committee's mandate includes both formally trained and working scientists, engineers, and health professionals. MEETINGS WITH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AND OTHERS The committees also submitted to Ambassador Addou the following list of government officials with whom it requested formal meetings: Maj. General Mohamed Siad Barre, President Lt. General Mohamed Ali Samantar, Prime Minister Mr. Abdurahman Jama Barre, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hassan Abdullahi Farah, Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs

Brig. General Jibril Mohammed, Director of the National Security Service Brig. General Mohamed Ghelle Yusuf, President of the National Security Court Mr. Abdullah Hadji, National Security Service Dr. Hussein Sheikh Abdirahaman, Attorney General Maj. General Ismail Ahmed Ismail, Commander of the Custodial Corps The committees also requested formal meetings with the represen- tative of the International Committee of the Red Cross and with prison officials and physicians at the National Security Service prison in Mogadishu, the Labaatan-Jirow prison, and the Lanta Bur prison (if any of the eleven specified prisoners were being held there). In September, more than one month before the delegation's visit, U.S. Ambassador Frank Crigler reiterated the committees' requests for meetings with government officials to the foreign min- istry in Mogadishu. Upon their arrival in Mogadishu, the delegates and Ambassador Crigler once again made these requests known to the foreign and interior ministries. This request was made directly by the delegates to Colonel Mohamed Ibrahim Hassan, the Direc- tor General of Security and Defense Affairs within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who had been identified as the proper official to assist the delegates. When the delegates met with Colonel Hassan, he already had a copy of the mission's terms of reference and the list of eleven prisoners. When asked for information on the status of the prisoners on the list, Colonel Hassan said that some of them had finished their terms. However, when asked which were free, Colonel Hassan said he did not have exact information and would have to contact the security forces and the Attorney General before providing specific names. The delegates reminded Colonel Hassan that such information was needed in a timely fashion for the delegation's report. Colonel Hassan then said that information on prisoners was not the responsibility of his office and that this fact posed a problem because the foreign ministry receives letters from many countries regarding prisoners in Somalia. Colonel Hassan told the delegates that the requested meetings with government officials were being arranged. However, although inquiries were made several times, the delegates were given an

appointment with only one of the government officials with whom a meeting had been formally requested, and that appointment was scheduled for the last day of the delegation's visit. The appointment was with Sheikh Hassan Abdullahi Farah, the Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs, and several members of his staff. The delegates were cordially received at the ministry and told that their visit was considered beneficial in establishing a dialogue between the institutions they represented and the min- istry. The minister told the delegates that, as a member of the United Nations, Somalia has ratified, adhered to—and in 1966, published—the United Nations Human Rights Charter. With regard to jurisdiction over the cases of interest to the committee, the minister explained that the Ministry of Justice and Religious Affairs has jurisdiction over all prisoners, but that the committees' cases are the direct responsibility of the National Security Court, which is independent and has its own special laws. When asked for information on the prisoners, the minister said he had received their names only the previous day, that he had tried to get information, but he did not know who the prisoners were and had not been able to find out where they were being held. When the delegates expressed surprise that the minister did not know one of the prisoners, Mohamed Aden Sheikh, a medical doctor who had been a government minister, he responded that he knew of him but that it would take some time to get the information on where he and the other prisoners were being held. The minister said that he would transmit such information, when available, to the delegation through Ambassador Addou in Washington. The minister said he wanted to remind the delegates that Somalia is a third-world country that has been only independent since 1960. He said that the delegates should not be surprised when there are detentions for reasons of national security. When asked about allegations of torture, the minister said there had never been any cases of torture, because torture is against the law in Somalia. When the delegates asked permission to visit the prisoners to ascertain that they have not been ill treated or tortured, the minister responded by giving the delegates a copy of the constitution of Somalia, saying that Article 27 forbids torture. (Article 27 and other articles of the constitution that relate to the committees' cases are printed in Appendix D.)

The information promised by Colonel Mohamed Ibrahim Has- san of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Sheikh Hassan Abdullah! Farah, the Minister of Justice, had not been received at the time this report was prepared. Because the delegates were not granted a meeting with Pres- ident Siad Barre, they sent a letter to the president expressing disappointment at not having met with him and the concerns they would have communicated in behalf of the committees regarding imprisoned colleagues in Somalia (see Appendix E). On their own initiative the delegates met with several officials of other countries and the International Red Cross: Ambassador Mohamed Shafig Sadiq Ragab, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt Sherif Rikan, First Secretary, Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt Ambassador Jeremy Varcoe, British Embassy Roger Huxley, First Secretary, British Embassy Ambassador Frank Crigler, Embassy of the United States Ambassador Mario Manca, Embassy of Italy Richard Anderegg, head of delegation, International Committee of the Red Cross The members of the delegation also met with Somali lawyer Ismail Jumale Ossable for an explanation of Somali laws. During the course of their visit the delegates were pleased to be able to meet with several other Somalia in social and informal settings. The following two individuals were met in this manner and they subsequently invited the members of the delegation to come to their offices to discuss scientific matters. Abdullah! Mohamed Siad, Vice Minister of Health (also present was A.S. Abbas, M.D., Director General of Preventive Services, Ministry of Health) Marian Farah Warsame, President of the Somali National Academy of Sciences and Arts There are no human rights groups in Somalia. The delegates did meet on their own with a number of Somalis who asked not to be mentioned by name in this report because of fear of reprisals from the government against themselves or their families. Two of the delegates, Francisco Ayala and Carol Corillon, returned to the United States via Rome in order to meet with

Professor Edoardo Amaldi and Professor Daniel Bovet, members of the Italian Academy of Sciences (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei). Professor Amaldi is vice president of the academy and the head of its committee on human rights. Professor Bovet is a winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in medicine. The two delegates described the mission to Somalia and its findings and requested the intervention of the Italian Academy of Sciences in behalf of scientific colleagues imprisoned in Somalia. SOMALIA, AN OVERVIEW To help put the human rights issues described in this report in context, this section provides a brief overview of Somalia's history, political system, and economy. Much of the information contained in this section is drawn from a publication of the U.S. Department of State entitled Somalia, A Country Study.1 Somalia is one of the world's poorest countries, suffering from a lack of natural resources and chronic drought. To these natural conditions are added inflation, unemployment, shortages of skilled laborers, large external debt, weak infrastructure, severe conflicts over territorial integrity with neighboring countries, and, at vari- ous times, the presence of up to a million refugees from southern and eastern Ethiopia. The population of Somalia, which at the time of indepen- dence in 1960 was estimated at roughly 2.9 million people, is now estimated to be between 5.6 and 5.8 million. Highly reliable pop- ulation estimates in Somalia are difficult to obtain because of the large nomadic population and the number of refugees living within its borders. Unlike that of most other African countries, Somalia's population is homogeneous: the people are ethnic Somalis with the same language; the overwhelming majority are Sunni Muslims; more than half are pastoral nomads. In ancient times, Somalia was known as the Land of Punt and was the source of the frankincense and myrrh mentioned fre- quently in the scriptures. Frankincense and myrrh were important trading articles, used for aromatic and medicinal purposes, that were transported by Egyptian, Phoenician, Persian, Greek, and Somalia, A Country Study, Foreign Area Studies, The American Uni- versity, Ed. by Harold D. Nelson, 1982, U.S. Government Printing Office.

Roman ships.2 The modern state of Somalia was created in 1960 when two colonial territories along the perimeter of the Horn of Africa — British Somaliland to the north and the Trust Territory of Somalia (under Italian administration) to the south — were united to form the Somali Republic (see map on following page). When Siad Barre took power in 1969, the country was renamed the Somali Democratic Republic. At the time of independence, a democratic, parliamentary government was established, political parties were formed, and elections were held. While Somalia maintained formal relations with most Western countries and professed to be nonaligned, it promptly established close ties with the Soviet Union and China. In 1962 the Soviet Union agreed to provide Somalia with loans for military training and equipment in addition to the nonmili- tary assistance then being provided by the USSR and China. The democratic form of government in Somalia lasted for 9 years. How- ever, the government was plagued by inefficiency and corruption during that time, and reportedly there was increasing dissatisfac- tion with the government among intellectuals and members of the armed forces and police. In 1969, Major General Mohamed Siad Barre took power in a coup d'etat. Somalia has been dominated by military rule since then. Today, President Siad Barre, who is believed to be in his late 70s, is one of the longest ruling African chiefs of state. In May 1986 President Siad Barre was injured in an auto- mobile accident outside Mogadishu. He spent a month in a hos- pital in Saudi Arabia, reportedly for treatment of broken ribs, head injuries, and shock. However, he has presumably recovered physically because he actively participated in the ceremonies held October 21, 1987, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Somali revolution. Despite diminished popularity because of famines and de- feat by Ethiopia in the Ogaden war and several coup attempts, President Barre's power seems secure. His power is attributed to his strongly authoritarian rule, support by the military, ar- rests and imprisonment — and occasionally summary execution — of those viewed as opponents of the government, and the appoint- ment of family or clan (Marehan) members to key government posts. , p. 5.

10 SUDAN ETHIOPIA Mogadishu INDIAN OCEAN Map of Somalia

11 Clan affiliation appears to have played an important role in the social and political lives of most Somalia. According to Somalia, A Country Study:3 Most published observations refer to the continuing role of clan affiliation in national politics. The clan-family, which rose to considerable importance in Somali politics of the 1950s and 1960s, seems to have lost its earlier force as a rallying point. The groups that carried weight or opposed the regime are all of the Darod clan-family: President Mohamed Siad Barre's clan, Marehan; his mother's clan, Ogaden; his son-in-law's clan, Dolbahante; and the opposition clan, Majerteyn. The study goes on to say that, while systematic study of the clan-family situation is not available:4 There is some anecdotal material on the continuing impor- tance of clan or lineage affiliation in obtaining jobs, services, and favors, and there are indications that even those who try to ignore clan favoritism as much as possible sometimes find it necessary to use their lineage connections. President Siad Barre has strictly forbidden opposition to and criticism of the government. According to Country Reports on Hu- man Rights Practices for 1986, published by the U.S. Department of State:5 Civil and political rights in Somalia are tightly circumscribed, and public criticism of the Government is not allowed. The Government shows little hesitation to imprison those it sees as a threat to security. The report estimates that there were between 300 and 500 political detainees in Somalia in 1986, at least 200 of whom were being held without charge. The New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization, believes that even these figures "seriously underestimate the arrests that have become a common feature of political life in Somalia." 6 When Siad Barre took power in a coup in 1969, the democratic constitution of 1960 was suspended, political parties were banned, 3 See SomaKa, A Country Study, p. 98. 6U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1986, February 1987, pp. 267-268. 6 "Human Rights in Africa," Testimony of Michael H. Posner, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, to the Subcommittee on African Affairs, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, D.C., March 10, 1987.

12 constitution of 1960 was suspended, political parties were banned, "scientific socialism" became the new ideological base, and the Soviet Union became the most dominant foreign influence. By the mid-1970s the Soviets had established a sophisticated military facility at the port of Berbera in northern Somalia on the Gulf of Aden, hundreds of Soviet advisers provided military training to the armed forces, and advisers from the German Demo- cratic Republic and Cuba lent support. In 1974 Somalia became the only non-Arab country to become a member of the League of Arab States. (As noted earlier, most Somalis are Muslims.) Because many ethnic Somalis live in areas of Kenya, Djibouti, and the Ogaden region, which lies between Somalia and Ethiopia and is claimed by both, one of the most important political issues in Somalia since its independence has been that of "pan-Somalism." The aim of pan-Somalism is to allow self-determination for Somalis living in these three areas—an issue viewed as extremely threat- ening by most members of the Organization of African Unity because of the implicit threat to their own territorial integrity. The most serious efforts since independence to fulfill the aims of pan-Somalism have involved violent clashes in the Ogaden. In 1975 Siad Barre formally recognized the Western Somali Libera- tion Front (WSLF), the main Somali guerrilla group fighting for military control of the Ogaden. In 1977, after the WSLF made significant inroads in the Ogaden, Moscow shifted its support from the government of Siad Barre to that of the Marxist government in Ethiopia, contributing directly to Somalia's defeat in the Ogaden in early 1978. Siad Barre subsequently expelled the Soviets and began looking to for- mer Western allies for assistance. His efforts have resulted in a considerable amount of economic aid from Italy, the Federal Re- public of Germany, and the United States, among others. Because of U.S. security concerns in the Middle East, So- malia's long coastline and location near the Red Sea are consid- ered strategically important. In 1980 the United States signed a military access agreement with the government of Somalia that granted the United States the use of the largely Soviet-built naval installations and an adjoining airfield at the port of Berbera. Since 1980 the United States has spent $54.3 million for military con- struction in Somalia. In 1984 the United States signed another agreement with Somalia to commit $38.6 million, through its

I3 Somalia's external debt at the end of 1986 was about $1.8 billion. It has signed a number of stand-by agreements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the most recent in June 1987, and it accepted the presence of an IMF resident representative in Mogadishu. However, according to Western diplomatic sources in Mogadishu, the IMF's representative has been ignored by Pres- ident Siad Barre and its stabilization plan is being disregarded. Recently, the plan was suspended when Somalia ended its foreign exchange auction on September 17,1987, in an effort to curb falling exchange rates. The Somali shilling is now artificially pegged to the U.S. dollar and fixed at 100 shillings to $1. While Somalia was able to reschedule most of its 1986, 1987, and 1988 government-to-government debt through agreements reached at the Paris Club in July 1987, a payment of around $2.8 million to the United States on military loans is now more than a year in arrears. As a result, Brooke-Alexander sanctions have been imposed, a $15 million loan has been suspended, activ- ities of the U.S. Agency for International Development have been put on hold, and no new projects except those under P.L.-480 (Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954) can be funded until a rescheduling protocol between the two countries is agreed upon. U.S. economic and security assistance funds allo- cated to Somalia in fiscal 1987 totaled $66.5 million, a decrease of $50.3 million from a high of $116.8 million in 1985.