Justice or Brutality?

Four young Somali men screamed in pain and blood flowed freely, as first their right hand and then their left foot was severed from their bodies, amputated by masked men using long knives known as machetes. The men aged between 18 and 25 were accused of, and plead guilty to, stealing guns and mobile phones. The severed body parts were later hung from trees and electricity polls.

The amputations were ordered earlier by a Shariah court run by al-Shabab militants who are fighting to topple Somalia's government and install a strict form of Islam known as Wahhabi.

"The defendants admitted the charges brought against them and were sentenced accordingly. Each one of them will have his right hand and left leg amputated publicly," said Judge Sheikh Abdallah al-Haq.

The amputations were not immediately carried out because that particular day was very hot and the court decided that carrying out an amputation in such conditions could lead the accused to bleed to death.

Amnesty International pleaded with the court not to carry out the sentence, saying the four men had not been given a fair trial.

"We are appealing to al-Shabab not to carry out these cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments," said Tawanda Hondora, a spokesperson for the human rights group.

"These sentences were ordered by a sham al-Shabab court with no due process or guarantees of fairness."

Their appeal was ignored as were the appeals from the international community for leniency.

The amputations were carried out at an al-Shabab military camp in the north of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Hundreds of people, including women and children, showed up to witness the bloody spectacle. The Somalia government appeared to have no authority to stop the punishments.

"All I can say for now is that it was a violation against human rights and a sentence carried out by criminals," Somali Information Minister Farhan Ali Mohamud said when asked to comment on the amputations.

The human rights group Amnesty International condemned the amputations, saying they amounted to torture.

"The horrific nature of such acts that were carried out in front of a crowd adds further injustice and dehumanizes these teenagers," said Tawanda Hondora, the deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa program.

The al-Shabab were unapologetic for their strict interpretation of Islamic law that calls for amputation for crimes of theft.

"We will punish like this everyone who carries out these acts," said al Shabaab official Sheikh Ali Mohamud Fidow.

Al Shabab has carried out executions, floggings and single-limb amputations before, mainly in the southern port of Kismayu. Movies and soccer games are banned in areas it controls, and men and women cannot travel together on public transport.

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13-Year-Old Somali Girl Stoned to Death

This is the story of a 13-year-old Somali girl named Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow. She was raped by three men. She reported the rape, even naming the perpetrators. Instead of receiving at least a sympathetic hearing she was accused of adultery and sentenced to death......by stoning.

Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was stoned to death on October 27, 2008 by 50 men in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Chisimaio (Kismayo), Somalia. She died pleading for her life, buried up to her neck in a hole in the ground. She was shown no mercy; not by the 50 men who stoned her to death nor the 1000+ people who gathered to witness the execution.

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This is a story about things that should never have happened. It reminds all of us that in some parts of the world justice is a foreign concept. Brutality rules supreme and those that hold power can and will make life and death decisions with impunity, regardless of the truth and without investigating the facts.

Both Amnesty International and UNICEF have issued statements strongly condemning the stoning death of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow - a victim of rape.

"This is a tragic and deplorable incident," said Christian Balslev-Olesen, UNICEF Representative for Somalia. "A child was victimized twice, first by the perpetrators of the rape and then by those responsible for administering justice."

“Authorities and institutions of civil society have a role to play in supporting and protecting the rights of every child,” Balslev-Olesen said, noting that this killing reflects the great effort that must be undertaken to protect the rights of Somali girls and women.

There was some confusion over Aisha's age. Initial reports claimed that she was 23 years old, based solely on her physical appearance. Her actual age, 13, was confirmed to Amnesty International by other sources including her father.

“This was not justice, nor was it an execution. This child suffered a horrendous death at the behest of the armed opposition groups who currently control Kismayo,” said David Copeman, Amnesty International's Somalia Campaigner.

“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.”

According to reports Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was walking on the road, traveling to see her grandmother in the capital Mogadishu, when she was attacked and raped by three men. She attempted to report the rape to the al-Shabab militia who control Kismayo. It was this act that inexplicably resulted in her being accused of adultery and detained. None of men she accused of rape were arrested.

In their defense court authorities said the woman came to them admitting her guilt. She was asked several times to review her confession but she stressed that she wanted Sharia law and the deserved punishment to apply, they said.

Eyewitnesses said Aisha was taken to a football stadium to be stoned. She was crying. She had to be forced into the hole that had been prepared for her. She was buried up to her neck.

She asked them "What do you want from me?" They said: "We will do what Allah has instructed us". She said: "I'm not going, I'm not going. Don't kill me, don't kill me."

That was when 50 men began to stone her. There were more than 1000 people on hand to witness it. According to Amnesty International, nurses were sent to check during the stoning whether the victim was still alive. They removed her from the hole and reported back that she was still alive. Aisha was then placed back in the hole and the stoning resumed until she was finally dead.

Somalia is among the world's most violent and impoverished countries. The nation of some 8 million people has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 then turned on each other. A quarter of Somali children die before age 5; nearly every public institution has collapsed. Fighting is a daily occurrence, with violent deaths reported nearly every day.