NAIROBI (July 9) –
Seven Somalis accused of renouncing Islam and spying for the government were
beheaded by Islamic insurgents today in a brutal reminder of the rebels’
growing authority.
The killings were carried out by the extremist al-Shabaab group, which is
fighting the interim government in Mogadishu and has implemented a strict
interpretation of Islamic law in those parts of the country that it
controls.
“Al-Shabaab told us that they were beheaded for being Christian followers and
spies,” a relative said after the executions were carried out. A witness
described seeing the decapitated bodies lying in the back of a truck in the
town of Baidoa.
Today’s killings were the largest number to take place at one time. But there
were only the latest in a series of beheadings, amputations and stoning to
death ordered by al-Shabaab, which is accused of having links to al-Qaeda
and is listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States.
In areas that al-Shabaab controls – including most of southern Somalia and
large parts of the capital Mogadishu – numerous others accused of
collaborating with the government or committing crimes such as adultery,
rape, theft and murder have been publicly executed, flogged or had
amputations ordered in recent weeks.
“This is a worrying new development,” said Roger Middleton, a Somalia analyst
at the Chatham House think-tank. “It shows that al-Shabaab is willing to use
these kind of extreme punishments and that the government has no ability to
influence events on the ground in places where it has no military presence.”
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s weak Transitional Federal Government is
protected by 4,300 African Union peacekeepers, backed by the United Nations
and propped up by Western governments which supply its forces with weapons
and training. But its authority extends to just a few blocks of the seaside
capital and roads connecting the port and airport.
Mr Ahmed’s administration is unable to carry out any of the functions of
government – including the provision of law and order – leaving a void that
al-Shabaab is filling with its own bloody kind of justice.
Late last month a group of four teenagers accused of theft each had a hand and
a foot publicly chopped off in Mogadishu while in the southern town of
Wanlaweyn a married man accused of rape and murder was buried up to his neck
in sand and stoned to death by a squad of ten masked men.
The brutality with which this informal justice is meted out has outraged human
rights activists, none more so than in October last year when a 13-year-old
victim of gang rape was convicted of adultery in a Sharia court and stoned
to death in Kismayo, near the Kenyan border.
The UN human rights chief warned today that both the Islamist insurgents and
government forces might be committing war crimes in renewed fighting that
has killed hundreds and forced over 200,000 civilians to flee Mogadishu
since early May.
Navi Pillay said: “Witnesses have told UN investigators that the so-called
al-Shabaab groups fighting to topple the transitional government have
carried out extrajudicial executions, planted mines, bombs and other
explosive devices in civilian areas and used civilians as human shields.
“Fighters from both sides are reported to have used torture and fired mortars
indiscriminately into areas populated or frequented by civilians. Some of
these acts might amount to war crimes.”
In moves reminiscent of the Taleban, who in 2001 destroyed two vast statues of
Buddha, the Somali hardliners have desecrated the tombs of saints worshipped
by Sufis, a mystical branch of Islam despised by the extremists but
widespread among ordinary Somalis.
They have also enforced changes in behaviour making women wear veils, banning
dances and other events at which men and women mix and outlawing the chewing
of qat, a popular mild stimulant herb.
Analysts say that an influx of hundreds of foreign jihadis from Britain,
Pakistan and elsewhere has further radicalised al-Shabaab and transformed it
into a more effective guerrilla fighting force.
With the help of these foreign fighters al-Shabaab launched a fresh offensive
in early May besieging the government of Mr Ahmed and carrying out at least
one deadly suicide attack in which a senior minister was killed in the town
of Beledweyne close to the border with Ethiopia.
Al-Shabaab’s growing confidence has been reflected in recent threats to launch
attacks in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, seen by the extremists as
Western stooges. African governments and Western intelligence agencies take
the threats seriously.
Despite the imposition of a UN arms embargo more than 16-years ago the
Islamists remain well supplied with new weapons. Last month the African
Union called for sanctions on nearby Eritrea which it accuses of helping
fund and arm al-Shabaab.
Eritrea has repeatedly denied the accusations but the UN Security Council said
yesterday that it was considering “what action to take” against Eritrea for
its continued support of al-Shabaab.
