Police Imprison & Beat Up Haatuf Reporter

Hargeysa, 11 August 2007 (SL Times) - The New Hargeysa police department arrested on Monday morning Ahmed Adan Dhere, the `Haatuf' daily newspaper Sahil region correspondent, while he was covering a local land dispute in the Sheekh Yusuf neighbourhood of Ga'an Libah district of Hargeysa.

The reporter was arrested and taken along with 13 other people to the `New Hargeysa' police station in Ga'an Libah district at 10:30 am Monday morning and was bailed by the Haatuf Media Network (HMN) management from police custody at 7 p.m.

Ahmed Adan Dhere said that he was badly beaten up by the police while being transported in the back of the police pick-up to `New Hargeysa' police station as well as inside the police station, and has sustained a broken finger and numerous head and body bruises and injuries.

Speaking to Somaliland Times, Ahmed Adan said that he received a call from residents living in Sh. Yusuf neighbourhood, in Ga'an Libah district of Hargeysa and they informed him of a land dispute in which the `New Hargeysa' police station were forcibly removing poor families from a disputed piece of land that was subject to a temporary ruling by a high court which prohibited the forceful removal of the families from that piece of land.

A property developer is contesting the ownership of this piece of land which is occupied by three poor families and their children.

The Haatuf reporter said that when he arrived at the scene the police were rounding up the family members living on the piece of land and who were resisting and fighting back the forceful removal from their homes, and the police were arresting anyone protesting the police actions.

Ahmed Adan added that while he was interviewing a male family member from one of the families evicted from their homes by the police, he was struck on the back of his shoulder by a police baton and was gripped from the back by the shirt collar and dragged to one of the waiting police pick-up vehicles which was loaded and packed with wailing women and crying children.

Ahmed Adan gave this account of the way the police treated him:

"While being thrown in the back of the pick-up and on the way to the `New Hargeysa' police station, I was kicked and punched repeatedly by the police. I was not told why I was arrested, nor why they were beating me. They knew I was a `Haatuf' journalist but this did not make any difference and probably was the reason why I was arrested and treated that way. When they took us to the police station, I was told to take off my shoes and all my personal belongings were put in a bag, which they tagged with a number.

Every time I asked for an explanation for my arrest, I would be slapped and body punched by three or four policemen standing alongside me inside the station desk room. I was then thrown inside a cell which had nine people."

Ahmad Adan continued, "After spending two hours in the cell, I was called to the cell door and was told to come out to be interviewed by a case officer. The case officer wrote down my name and mother's name and where I lived. He asked how I was brought to the station. He asked which newspaper I worked for, and said I was arrested because I decided to support one of the parties in the land dispute and that before I went to the scene of the dispute I should have sought permission from the police department to cover the land dispute for the newspaper.”

Ahmad Adan elaborated: "I informed the case officer of my injuries that were caused by the police and he noted it down. I was taken back to the cell and locked up for the next 7 hours, right up till the time my employer (HMN) secured my bail/surety. I was released just after 7 in the evening".

Hussein Halif, from HMN staff management told SL Times that the paper tried to make an official complaint to the recent and newly formed UNDP funded and equipped `police complaints department' which, ironically, is based and housed in 'New Hargeysa' police station. Hussein Halif explained that "when we arrived at the police complaints department to register our reporter's ill-treatment at the hands of the police, we were amazed to discover that the department no longer functioned, and that its premises and offices that were recently fully furnished offices and renovated by the UNDP, had all its equipment, furniture, windows and door-frames missing. It simply no longer seemed to exist or function, and the police department could not provide us with another address or location where the complaints department may have been moved or transferred to."

This is the third time in less than three months that police brutality and illegal arrest is committed against a reporter in Somaliland and is publicly reported.

The number of unreported instances of police brutality and illegal detention of the independent media exceeds 10-20 incidents each month in Somaliland.

Source: Somaliland Times