Amnesty appeals for release of "Gaboye" demonstrators
HARGEYSA, 25 May
2005 (IRIN) - Amnesty International has urged
authoritities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland
to release 100 members of the minority Gaboye community
detained earlier this month as they demonstrated against
the killing of one of their number by the police.
The detainees were
being held incommunicado and without charge in unknown
locations in Hargeysa, the Somaliland capital, Amnesty
said in a statement.
A large group of
Gaboye people held peaceful demonstrations in various
parts of Hargeysa on 13 May to protest the shooting of
Khadar Osman Dhabar by a police officer, in the Hawl Wadag
area of Hargeysa. Khadar, 31, later died in hospital from
gunshot wounds.
Details of the
shooting incident, which happened on 11 May, were still
unclear due to differing accounts from the authorities and
Khadar’s family and friends.
Amnesty, in a
statement issued on 18 May, said: "We consider the
detained demonstrators and others arrested later to be
prisoners of conscience who are imprisoned on account of
their peaceful opinions and defense of the human rights of
Gaboye minority."
"Gaboye" is a
collective term used by the Somali to refer to people who
are considered lower caste because of their occupation.
The minority groups – notably Musa Dariyo, Yibir (Hebrew)
and Madiban – are discriminated against in the clan-based
society and commonly work as blacksmiths, leather workers,
herbalists and ritual specialists.
According to custom,
they are not allowed to intermarry with other Somali
clans, and thus have no protection in the form of
vengeance or compensation for murder and other crimes.
Somaliland Interior
Minister Ismail Adan Osman refuted the allegations by
Amnesty International.
"About 100 of the
minority Gaboye group took part in a violent
demonstration," he told IRIN on Suunday. "They burned
tyres, barricaded roads, threw stones, damaged several
business premises and a telephone company at the heart of
the town.
"The police were
called in to restore public order. The police were forced
to shoot in the air, and they made a number of arrests,"
he added.
Source: IRIN, May
25, 2005
