Hiiraan Online

by Ahmed Hirsi
Wednesday, August 21, 2013

 I am certain that most readers are unable to position themselves at which of the allegations you can neither admit nor deny.

Furthermore, few days ago various local Somali as well the International media outlets have been reporting about a 20 year old Somali woman that was kidnapped close to her village in Yaqshid district, Mogadishu and brutally raped by AMISOM forces.

The woman in question was initially approached by a group of five armed personnel, four men and one woman, in Somali government uniforms who claimed that she was being arrested for suspected involvement in terrorist activities.

Indeed, the Somali Government took a bold and a positive approach and formed a Commission/ Committee to fully investigate the aforementioned ‘rape allegation/ fact’.

I truly, commend and admire the Somali Government’s effort in swiftly addressing this serious and heinous inhumane act.

According to my knowledge there are no pre-planned or politically orchestrated cases of rapes taking place in Somalia.

Given the longevity of civil strife and lawlessness in Somalia that lasted more than two decades coupled with weak or nonexistent institutions it is not surprising that rape cases are significantly high.

However, this statement doesn’t mean that I am condoning rape. On the contrary, rape amounts to murder if not worse. In my opinion I think there is a correlation between lawlessness and higher rates of rape incidences in Somalia. Other factors cannot be ruled out either, however, due to time and space I wouldn’t be able to look into other factors in this piece.

Rape as a Weapon of War

Historically speaking, significant documentation exists of men in uniform for having committing shameful acts of rape will it be in Congo, Somalia or elsewhere.

According to a recent report written by Amnesty International Women's bodies have become part of the terrain of conflict. The report argues that rape and sexual abuse are not just a by-product of war but are used as a deliberate military strategy. 

In addition to that there is ample literature suggesting that during war and armed conflict, rape is frequently used as a means of psychological warfare in order to humiliate the enemy.

For instance, in the former Republic of Yugoslavia troubling, shocking and politically orchestrated cases of rapes took place. In Comparison to Somalia the picture is entirely like chalk and cheese.

During the Balkan War I was working for the Danish Refugee Council in Denmark, some of the refugees from the Balkan narrated about traumatic tales regarding systematic rapes carried out by the Serb soldiers on Bosnians Muslims and Croatians, these harrowing tales still remain in my mind.

Foca, Bosnia - 1992

On August 12, some foreigners came to the prison, and the Serbs were told they had to release us. On the evening between August 12 and 13, a thirty-year-old woman and I were taken away and we were raped on the benches of the sports hall. The number of men who came to rape us increased. First, there were three, then four and five. I eventually counted twenty-eight different men who raped me that night, but I lost consciousness after that. They must have thrown water on me, because I was all wet when I awoke . . . . We were taken back to (the workers' quarters at) Buk Bijeli, and there I was gang-raped again by four men dressed in camouflage. The other woman who was being raped started to cry; the soldiers started to yell at her. They started to scream, "Your guys are doing the same things we are doing."

- M., 28 year old Muslim woman with two children (70 Notre Dame Law Review 845)

According to some scholars there exists convincing evidence that the raping of women pursued a systematic plan of ethnic cleansing-the process of evacuating or forcing out certain ethnic groups from geographic areas-by instigating a form of ethnic pollution.

Mark Wheeler, a lecturer on Balkan history at the University of London: "The idea of nationality in the former Yugoslavia is based on descent, and the greatest debasement is to pollute a person's descent."

Mark goes on to argue that in the Balkans, rape certainly appears to have been used as a method of bringing shame and destruction to Muslim families. Eyewitness accounts mention instances where women were detained in what have been called "rape camps" and raped repeatedly until they became pregnant. These women were released only when it was too late for an abortion. As pointed out by Granjon and Deloche, this forced them to bear children of mixed ethnicity, thereby acquiring the aim of ethnic pollution. Similar, tactics were used during the Somali civil war.

The Alleged AMISOM Rape

This morning while I was chewing my Canjeelo, before heading off to work I almost chocked when I listened to a clip on a Somali website where the Minister for Social Development Maryam Kassim was commenting on the case of the 20 years old Somali women that claimed to have been raped by Amisom soldiers.

Honestly, the Minister is conscientious and hard working member of the Cabinet and she is well-liked minister both in Somalia and in the Diaspora. If I may paraphrase the Minister in Somali she said the following among other things:

Waxaa soo badatey maalmahan in la leeyahay  10kii gabdood oo soomali ah 9 waa la faraxumeeyey. Taasna waa bunboonis iyo ka badbadin , laftirkeeda wax aan aqbali karno maaha. Raagi Soomaaliyeed ee sharafta iyo haybadda  lagu yiqiiney, Ciidamadii qalabka sidey ee waddanka u taagnaa iyagana in ilaa iyo levelkaas la gaarsiiyo oo been abuur intaas le’eg. Oo heer la yiraahdo  haddey 10kii gabdood ee Soomali ah  9 la yiraahdo  waa la faraxummey  haddey wax dhaqanba maleh . Taas iyo ka kabadbadinta

A crude translation will be something like: 

Rumour has it that 9 out of 10 Somali girls have been raped. This is sheer exaggeration, which is completely unacceptable claim. It is also damaging to the dignity/pride and respect of the Somali men and to that of our armed forces. If this is the case and that 9 out of 10 girls have been raped no one is safe.

The Minister went further to claim that there have been increasing incidences whereby some Somali girls were offered petty cash and coerced to claim that they have been raped. This is serious stuff.

I am sorry to say that Mama Maryam is wrong on this. Generally, speaking Mama or sister Maryam has some good Islamic values and I think her intentions are good; however, her approach is a bit wrong. On the other hand she is right about exaggerated cases that have been blown out of proportion for various reasons.

Legal Diffulties
Even in most advanced nations in the West rape is proving to be associated with legal difficulties. According to the Independent News Paper sexual assault is one of the few crimes where proof lies not in the physical facts of the matter, but in the subjective intentions of those involved.

With no forensic evidence labs and trained personnel at police stations and at the courts proving a rape case in Somalia amounts to teaching a third grade pupil quantum mechanics.

One person's word against another's, with no corroborating witnesses, is highly problematic for a legal system predicated on the concepts of innocent until proven guilty and proof beyond reasonable doubt.

For those very reasons we will need to be cautious about responding or dismissing rape cases in Somalia will it be in Police Stations or at Law Courts. We will need to find a thin balance between the two. No mother or a sister in Somalia or elsewhere should suffer the effects of rape.

Conclusion

Most scholars claim that it is almost impossible to imagine that rape in war will die away. As long as organized killing continues, so too will the rape of innocent girls and women continue to be hanging around. Without improving the security of the country Somalia will continue to witness embarrassing and alarming rates of rape cases.
Priority should be given in ending wars and conflicts.  Awareness of the devastating effects of rape must be taught at schools similar to civic studies, racism, and Anti- Semitism. No Somali sister, auntie, or mother should suffer.

LONG LIVE SOMALIA.