[Reader-list] Islamic justice

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/03/somalia-rape-amnesty

*Somalian rape victim, 13, stoned to death.*
Chris McGreal, Africa correspondent The Guardian,
Monday November 3 2008

An Islamist rebel administration in Somalia has had a 13-year-old
girl stoned to death for adultery after the child's father reported
that she was raped by three men.

Amnesty International said al-Shabab militia, which controls the
southern city of Kismayo, arranged for 50 men to stone Aisha Ibrahim
Duhulow in front of about 1,000 spectators. A lorry load of stones
was brought to the stadium for the killing.

Amnesty said Duhulow struggled with her captors and had to be
forcibly carried into the stadium.

"At one point during the stoning, Amnesty International has been told
by numerous eyewitnesses that nurses were instructed to check whether
Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was still alive when buried in the ground. They
removed her from the ground, declared that she was, and she was
replaced in the hole where she had been buried for the stoning to
continue," the human rights group said. It continued: "Inside the
stadium, militia members opened fire when some of the witnesses to
the killing attempted to save her life, and shot dead a boy who was a
bystander."

Amnesty said Duhulow was originally reported by witnesses as being 23
years old, based on her appearance, but established from her father
that she was a child. He told Amnesty that when they tried to report
her rape to the militia, the child was accused of adultery and
detained. None of the men accused was arrested.

"This was not justice, nor was it an execution," said Amnesty's
Somalia campaigner, David Copeman. "This killing is yet another human
rights abuse committed by the combatants to the conflict in Somalia,
and again demonstrates the importance of international action to
investigate and document such abuses, through an international
commission of inquiry."



-- 
Aditya Raj Kaul

Freelance Correspondent, The Times of India
Cell - +91-9873297834

Campaign Blog: http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/
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