Samsam’s Ordeal Continues: And the Lunacy Blights Further Afar

Hargeisa, 16.10.04 – A group of human rights activist were yesterday imprisoned in Hargeisa, Somaliland for protesting against the sadistic maltreatment of Samsam A Du’ale by Somaliland’s police and Central Intelligence Department (CID). Human rights activists gathered outside the courthouse where the hearing of the case concerning the accused was in session. Barred from the hearing, the group were later roughed up and detained for condemning the brutality in the case, and came out in support of the 15-year-old. Only a few days ago, the heartbreaking story of Samsam Ahmed Du’ale, which was first reported in August of 2004, surfaced, tough unfortunately it now has taken a dreadful turn as local good Samaritans who rose to rescue the 15-year-old, had been detained for speaking against the atrocious nature of Somaliland’s CID’s practice of torture, sodomy and rape as an acceptable modus operandi of interrogation. Regrettably, no one in Hargeisa dares openly speak of the case, let alone condemn practices of this kind. In Hargeisa, ordinary citizens are not only petrified of what might come their way should they breath a word, in fact many are said to be horrified by the sheer cruelty of Riyaale’s secret agents. It is not the first time civilians from southern regions of Somalia had been badly treated, some subsequently dying from torture, in this once budding city in Northwest Somalia. In Bosaso, Samasam’s relatives are distraught, and are uncertain as to Samsam’s future. Mohamed A Ali Freelance Journalist