Rape on the Rise in Somaliland As Perpetrators Receive Leniency
Hargeisa, Aug 22, 2013 (SDN) — Interference from traditional elders and lack of law enforcement are impeding the prosecution of an increasing number of rape cases in the Somaliland region. As many as 180 Somaliland women and minors were raped from January through August 18th, according to records kept by the Baahi-Koob Centre, a sexual assault referral office at Hargeisa General Hospital. The centre counsels victims, gives them health exams, and forwards their cases to the police and judiciary.
“Rape violations are increasing every month and year,” said Baahi-Koob programme manager Abdikadir Ahmed Mohamed. He said 30% of reported cases were gang rapes and 55% of the victims were under 15 years old.
Established in 2009, the centre has limited resources and operates in only one location. The centre’s main mission faces a number of obstacles, such as cultural interference, legal leniency in prosecuting alleged rapists and the general public’s lack of understanding about reporting rape cases in time, Mohamed said.
In addition, health workers at Baahi-Koob do not have the equipment or adequate training on how to properly collect physical evidence that can be used in court. One-quarter of the cases that Baahi-Koob handles ends up lacking such evidence when forwarded to court, Mohamed said.
Fewer than 20% of the cases submitted to the authorities by Baahi-Koob lead to a judicial sentencing because traditional elders take over cases even while a court is hearing them, he said.
There are three parallel systems to adjudicate conflicts in Somaliland — one based on customs and led by traditional elders, another based on sharia law and one based on Somaliland’s penal code — which enables perpetrators to seek adjudication in the forum most advantageous to them.
Even though the penal code stipulates a sentence of up to 15 years for rape, no court in Somaliland has ever handed down such a long prison term to a convicted rapist, Mohamed said.
“What happens is a one-year sentence against the criminal, who promptly pays a fine instead,” he said.
Mohamed, however, welcomed the 10-year sentences handed down August 4th by the Marodi Jeh Regional Court to 20 of 21 men convicted of gang-raping two Hargeisa women in July 2012. The last defendant got a five-year sentence.
“This was the best sentence the government has issued against the perpetrators of a gang-rape, and also the harshest sentence against any rape case,” he said. However, the government must work toward establishing and enforcing a singular justice system, he said, underscoring the fact that there are no laws currently prohibiting traditional elders and others from interfering in such cases.
Rape marriages
The cases documented by Baahi-Koob are far fewer than the total number of rapes that took place in Somaliland in 2013, according to Ahmed Yusuf Hussein, head of Hargeisa-based Horn Human Rights Umbrella.
“This is because the centre operates only in Hargeisa, furthermore [its findings] only reflect the victims who agree to report their cases there,” Hussein told Sabahi. “Rape has never been this high, and it has become the biggest human rights violation problem in Somaliland.”
No one is certain about how many other rapes are taking place in Hargeisa or other parts of Somaliland, he said. “We are calling for an immediate solution to this problem,” Hussein said.
“When groups of youth or men rape one woman, the families of the criminals split the costs and compensate the victim’s family financially,” he said, adding that some victims are even forced to marry their rapists as part of out-of-court settlements between the families brokered by traditional elders.
Compensation for rape determined by traditional solutions usually does not exceed 5 million Somaliland shillings ($760), Hussein said.
“As we know, most of the marriages that occur in this way immediately end up in divorce and do not last longer than six months,” he said. “This is because of the disillusionment the woman suffers as a result of the crime committed against her.”
Still, there are some indicators that progress is being made in prosecuting rape cases, according to Hussein Jama Guled, a legal and technical adviser at the Somaliland Attorney General’s office.
As many as 134 defendants in 67 rape cases were sentenced between May 2012 and May 2013, Guled told Sabahi. This figure represents a 30% increase in sentences from the previous year.
“It appears as though progress has been made in combating this issue,” he said.
The progress came out of a collaborative effort between the prosecutor’s office and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) aimed at developing Somaliland’s justice system, he said.
Tough laws exist that can be used to prosecute rape cases, Guled said. “There is lack of law enforcement, but there is no lack of sentence enforcement,” he said.
“Once rape cases get to the prosecutor’s office, it is hard for the [traditional elders] to take them over through cultural means,” he said, acknowledging that interference in earlier stages still remains a huge obstacle in bringing perpetrators of rape to justice.
By: Barkhad Dahir
Source: Sabahionline