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MOGADISHU,
September 12, 2009 – Fighting in Mogadishu during the Muslim holy month
of Ramadan has so far been some of the worst in 20 years, killing 32
civilians in four days this week, a human rights group in the Somali
capital said Thursday.
The Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization said 18 women and seven
children were among the dead, and that 82 civilians were wounded between
September 5-8 as Islamist insurgents battled the U.N.-backed government
and African Union (AU) peacekeepers.
Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state has become
a safe haven for militant groups linked to al Qaeda who are plotting
attacks across the region and beyond.
"The current human rights situation in Mogadishu is one of the worst in
the last 20 years for the displacement, injuring and killing of
civilians," the Elman group said in a report.
"From September 5-8 ... the fighting in Mogadishu during the Ramadan
fasting month is the worst (on record), according to the monitoring of
Elman staff," it said.
The group said the behavior of Islamist militants who launched attacks
while civilians were breaking their fast with an evening meal, as well
as firing mortar barrages from hiding places in residential
neighborhoods, was unacceptable.
It also accused government forces, backed by the AU peacekeepers from
Uganda and Burundi, of indiscriminately retaliating by shelling civilian
areas and business premises.
REBELS CUT OFF HANDS
"Those behind the violations against civilians ... resulting in killing,
injuring and destruction of public property must be held accountable,"
said Elman's vice-chairman Ali Shiekh Yassin.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government controls just parts of the
coastal capital and central region. Most of the south is run by Islamist
insurgents including the al Shabaab group, which Washington says is al
Qaeda's proxy in Somalia.
Wednesday, hard-line al Shabaab fighters amputated the right hands of
two teenage Mogadishu boys they said had been convicted of theft by a
militant sharia court.
"We whipped another teen-ager for raping a lady. We also fined him $150
and expelled him from Mogadishu for a year," said Sheikh Abdul Basid
Mohamed, an al Shabaab judge in the city.
The group has carried out executions, floggings and amputations before,
mostly in the southern port of Kismayu. Movies and soccer games are
banned in the rebels' territory, and men and women cannot travel
together on public transport.
Al Shabaab's strict practices have shocked many Somalis, who are
traditionally moderate Muslims, but some residents credit the insurgents
with restoring order to regions they control.
Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and
driven another 1.5 million from their homes.
That has triggered one of the world's worst aid emergencies, with the
number of people needing help leaping 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76
million or half the population.
(Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mohamed; Writing by Daniel Wallis;
Editing by Giles Elgood).
Source: Reuters, Sept 10, 2009
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