Hargeysa, Somaliland, June 16, 2007 (SL Times) – A breast feeding mother named Amina Dhore is being held in detention in Gabiley, 55Km west of Hargeisa, in connection with a land dispute.

Amina was arrested early last week by an order issued by the Security Committee separating her from her breast fed baby after Hargeisa local authority gave a planning permission to a real estate prospector called `Ina Bubaa' to a disputed piece of land in the east of Hargeisa, Somali language Geeska Africa newspaper reported. The two parties are said to have both legal ownership of the plots of the land. Both legal ownership documents were issued by the same Hargeyisa local authority under the responsibility of Mayor Hussein Ji'ir.

The local authority favored real estate prospector started building the disputed plot last week. The Security Committee, an extra-legal body that arrests without warrant and passes sentences without trial has accused Amina of blocking the real estate prospector's building work.

Amina's baby is said to be looked after by relatives at her house in New-Hargeisa, while the mother is serving the Security Committee's two years sentence. Amina is not the only one who was sentenced to jail, there are also a number of men who are being detained by the security committee in Madhera prison (92 Km east of Hargeisa).

This action is the latest human rights violation by the Security Committee, and many citizens are furious and have asked for the breastfeeding mother’s immediate release. Somaliland’s authorities did not comment.

Both Somaliland’s parliament and the former Supreme Court President `Faysal Haji Jama' had declared the security committee as an illegal apparatus, nevertheless, Somaliland President Dahir Rayale, has so far refrained from the abolishing this organ.

In a meeting with Somaliland’s diaspora on June 12 th in Oslo, President Rayale was asked whether the security committees should continue to exist or are they negatively affecting Somaliland’s chances for recognition due to their human rights violations, the president replied, “Yes the Security Committees are the solution; it is an emergency court that tries those who commit crimes, and it is an absolutely necessity apparatus.”

The Somaliland Times has learned that the president's reply did not sit well with many in the audience.

Source: Somaliland Times

Further info on the the " illegal Security Committees" can be found on: