Scientists and Human Rights in Somalia: Report of a Delegation (1988)

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REFERENCE COPY FOR LIBRARY USE Oiii.Y NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Committee on Human Rights INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE Committee on Health and Human Rights PROPERTY OF LIBRARY Scientists and Human Rights 991R1 * /*"^ 1 * DR ^s'-iQiSXi in ^r^mQliQ Order HO.U? "* JJ'p&i HI OUlllclllcl REPORT OF A DELEGATION NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1988

JC 599 DTICE: This report has been approved by the members of the ammittee on Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences , id the Committee on Health and Human Rights of the Institute Medicine. It was reviewed by the Council of the National -icademy of Sciences. The delegation to Somalia was sponsored by the Committee on Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences and the Com- mittee on Health and Human Rights of the Institute of Medicine. The mission was made possible through the use of general operat- ing funds provided to the committees by the Ford Foundation, the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, the New-Land Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, the Stichting European Human Rights Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and an individual donor. Available from: Committee on Human Rights National Academy of Sciences 2101 Constitution Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418

Delegation to Somalia FRANCISCO J. AYALA, Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine CAROL CORILLON, Director, Committee on Human Rights, National Academy of Sciences, and Committee on Health and Human Rights, Institute of Medicine M. ALFRED HAYNES, former president and dean, Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, Los Angeles, California LAWRENCE R. KLEIN, Benjamin Franklin Professor of Economics and Finance, University of Pennsylvania in

Committee on Human Rights National Academy of Sciences 1987-1988 ELIOT STELLAR (Chair), Institute of Neurological Sciences, University of Pennsylvania GERARD DEBREU, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley DANIEL C. DRUCKER, Engineering Sciences Department, University of Florida THOMAS EISNER, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University M. ALFRED HAYNES, former president and dean, Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, Los Angeles, California MARY ELLEN JONES, Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina ROBERT S. LAWRENCE, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts FRANCIS LOW, Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology DANIEL NATHANS, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University DONALD S. ORNSTEIN, Department of Mathematics, Stanford University VERA RUBIN, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington WILLIAM P. SLIGHTER, former executive director, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey GILBERT F. WHITE, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado ADAM YARMOLINSKY (adviser), Department of Political Science, University of Maryland Graduate School of Baltimore CAROL CORILLON, Director

Committee on Health and Human Rights Institute of Medicine 1987-1988 ELENA NIGHTINGALE (Chair), Carnegie Corporation of New York, Washington, D.C. M. ALFRED HAYNES, former president and dean, Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, Los Angeles, California DONALD R. HOPKINS, Carter Presidential Center, Atlanta, Georgia ROBERT S. LAWRENCE, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts MANUEL MARTINEZ-MALDONADO, School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Juan ALICIA H. MUNNELL, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston CAROL CORILLON, Director vii

Contents PREFACE xi BACKGROUND The NAS Committee's Work and Somalia, 1 Terms of Reference for the Mission, 3 Meetings with Government Officials and Others, 4 Somalia, an Overview, 8 FINDINGS 15 Security Institutions and Laws, 16 National Security Service, 16 National Security Court, 17 Prisons, 17 February 2, 1988, Trial, 19 The Parliamentarians, 22 The Other Detainees, 23 The Hargeisa Group, 26 Released, 29 Tried and Sentenced, 29 Detained Without Trial, 31 Torture, 32 The Victims, 32 The Physical and Psychological Methods and Consequences, 34 ix

CONCLUSIONS 39 Communication, 39 Rights of Prisoners, 40 Freedom from Torture, 41 Role of President Siad Barre, 41 APPENDICES 43 A The Delegation and the Committees, 45 B Committee Cases in Somalia, 51 C Letter from the Attorney General of Somalia, 53 D Excerpts, Constitution of the Somali Democratic Republic, 57 E Letter from the Delegation to President Siad Barre, 59 F Excerpts, Law No. 54 and Penal Code of the Somali Democratic Republic, 65 G Individuals Scheduled for Trial, February 1988, 71 H Public Announcement of February 1988 Trial, 73 I Autopsy Report on Warsama Ali Farah, 77 J Individuals Arrested in Hargeisa, 1981, 81

Preface This report presents information gathered by Francisco J. Ayala, Carol Corillon, M. Alfred Haynes, and Lawrence R. Klein, members of a human rights delegation to Somalia from October 25 through November 1, 1987 (see Appendix A for short biographical sketches of the delegation members). The mission was sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) Committee on Hu- man Rights and the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Committee on Health and Human Rights. The Committee on Human Rights was created in 1976; it assists scientists, engineers, and health professionals who are im- prisoned, internally exiled, or "disappeared" and are considered to be prisoners of conscience. The Committee on Health and Human Rights was created in 1987; it focuses on health-related aspects of human rights. (See Appendix A for a description of the work of the committees.) The delegates went to Somalia to gather information and express the concerns of the two committees regarding eleven im- prisoned scientific colleagues and in the hope of visiting them in prison. One of the objectives of the mission—to gather informa- tion on the background, charges brought, physical well-being, and legal status of the eleven imprisoned colleagues—was met to an as- tonishing degree, albeit with considerable difficulty and less than full cooperation from the government authorities of Somalia. An important accomplishment of the mission to Somalia is that the members of the delegation were able to collect a significant amount of information on charges brought against five scientific colleagues who are scheduled to be tried by the National Security Court in Mogadishu on February 2, 1988. We hope that the information in this report will bring the plight of these five individuals, and of many other prisoners of conscience in Somalia, to the attention of xi

the authorities in Somalia and concerned individuals everywhere so that immediate action can be taken toward their release. While the mission was certainly worthwhile, two of the other objectives of the mission—meeting with President Mohamed Siad Barre and a number of government officials and obtaining permis- sion to visit the eleven prisoners—were not met, though for no lack of effort on the part of the delegates. While in Somalia, Drs. Ayala, Haynes, and Klein offered to give scientific lectures to show support for the Somali academic and scientific community. The offers by Drs. Haynes and Klein were accepted. On Wednesday morning, October 28, Dr. Klein lectured to a group of about 150 students and teachers at the Faculty of Economics at the Somali National University; he spoke on economic development prospects for Africa and the Middle East. Dr. Haynes lectured in the evening at the Faculty of Medicine at the Somali National University on planning a nation's health. As chair of the NAS Committee on Human Rights, I would like to thank each of the delegates for selflessly agreeing to donate the considerable time and energy that was required on the mission to Somalia. I would also like to thank them for their patience and unfailing optimism prior to the mission. I would also like to thank Gerard Debreu, a member of the committee, Nobel laureate, and a member of the committee's hu- man rights delegation to Chile in 1985, for his assistance in the preparations for the Somalia mission and his follow-up immedi- ately afterward with scientific colleagues in Italy. The delegation members, the chair of the Committee on Health and Human Rights of the Institute of Medicine, Elena Nightingale, and I especially thank all of the individuals who so generously gave their time and knowledge in briefing the members of the delegation before their departure for Somalia, as well as Ambassador Addou and the government of Somalia for permitting the mission. We would also like to express special appreciation to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester Crocker; U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Richard Schifter, and his staff; U.S. Ambas- sador to Somalia, Frank Crigler, and the members of his staff—in particular, Second Secretary Marguerita Ragsdale—for their vital and invaluable assistance to the mission. While in Mogadishu, the members of the delegation met with foreign diplomats, a few members of the government of Somalia, xii

representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and a number of Somalis. Although some of these individuals are not mentioned by name in this report because they requested anonymity, we are grateful to all of them for meeting with the delegates and for their insights and information. This report was written by Carol Corillon with the collabo- ration of Francisco J. Ayala, M. Alfred Haynes, and Lawrence R. Klein. Eugenia Grohman of the professional staff of the National Research Council generously volunteered her time to edit the re- port. Academy staff members Carole Jolly and Meeru Dhalwala made important contributions to the preparations for the mission. Although this report is critical of the human rights situation in Somalia, we would like to stress that, unlike many other countries, the government of Somalia responded to one of our inquiries, and it permitted our delegation to go to Mogadishu. We accept these actions as an indication of Somalia's desire to live up to internationally accepted human rights standards, and we hope these gestures are the first of the many efforts that are needed. It is our hope that the information contained in this report will assist and encourage other scientific organizations and human rights groups to intervene in behalf of our colleagues and other victims of human rights abuses in Somalia. Eliot Stellar, Chair Committee on Human Rights National Academy of Sciences Xlll