(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned an attack by militiamen working for businessman and self-proclaimed president Abdinur Ahmed Darman. On 16 October 2004, Darman’s militiamen slapped, threatened and shot at radio reporter Abdullahi Yassin Jama in Mogadishu after he and another journalist interviewed the inhabitants of a refugee camp. “We once again protest against the regime […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned an attack by militiamen working for businessman and self-proclaimed president Abdinur Ahmed Darman. On 16 October 2004, Darman’s militiamen slapped, threatened and shot at radio reporter Abdullahi Yassin Jama in Mogadishu after he and another journalist interviewed the inhabitants of a refugee camp.
“We once again protest against the regime of terror maintained with complete impunity by the faction chiefs in Somalia. The courage of Somalia’s journalists is a credit to a country devastated by 13 years of anarchy and war. Abdinur Ahmed Darman should respect their work. Instead, the way his thugs assaulted and threatened [this] journalist bodes ill for his plans for Somalia,” RSF said.
The leader of the United Somali Republic Party (USRP), Darman had himself proclaimed president by 5,000 supporters gathered in Mogadishu in July 2003. He and his militia continue to exercise absolute power over certain districts of the capital and parts of southern Somalia.
A wealthy businessman more than a warlord, Darman described himself as a “business deal facilitator” upon his return from exile in 2003. A United Nations report has accused him of being involved in counterfeiting money. He is one of the last clan chiefs refusing to recognise the authority of President Abdullahi Yusuf, who was sworn in before a meeting of the new Somali Parliament in Kenya on 14 October.
Jama, who works for Radio Banadir, and Zeynab Abukar Mohammed, a journalist with HornAfrik Radio, had been interviewing civilian refugees in Mogadishu’s “Camp Bosnia” whose homes had been devastated by heavy rain.
“As we finished our work, four gunmen took up position at the entrance to the camp and stopped me,” Jama told the Somali Journalist Network (Sojon), a local press freedom organisation.
“They said to me, ‘Show us your tape recorder and your recording and if we hear one word about the government of Abdullahi Yusuf, you will lose your life.'” Mohammed had meanwhile hidden behind a kiosk after seeing that her colleague had been detained.
Jama said that one of the militiamen slapped him several times and placed the barrel of his gun against his head. When a woman’s voice was heard on the recording saying she hoped to be given a new home by the “Somali government in Kenya” (referring to the Yusuf government), Jama ran off while the militiamen fired shots at him with their Kalashnikovs. He was not hit. Mohammed did not leave her hiding place until the militiamen had left the camp. Both she and Jama are now out of danger.
In the face of the brutality of Somalia’s gunmen and the impunity they enjoy, RSF reiterated its appeal to parliamentarians and the new president not to waste the opportunity being offered them. “The country needs to be rebuilt, and this cannot be done at the expense of journalists who, despite the constant violence, continue to do their work,” the organisation said. “The Somali press must not only be protected but also supported and listened to by those whose job it is to create a new Somalia,” RSF added.
