The Massacre in Las Anod

The Massacre in Las Anod Osman Hassan January 23, 2012

The massacre that Somaliland's occupation forces committed in Las Anod on Sunday 21 January 2012, in which a number of people were cold-bloodedly killed and many fatally wounded, may be the first of its kind. But it is only part of the wider crimes against humanity which the one-clan secessionist enclave calling itself "Somaliland" had adopted as their instruments of occupation and suppression since they occupied the capital city and other parts of the Khaatumo State of Somalia (formerly SSC) in October 2007.

Outsiders may only be aware of some headline-catching instances of the odious nature of this occupation. Just to mention some, memories are still fresh of what they did at Kalshaale in Feburary 2011 when their tanks chased and deliberately run over scores of SSC nomads in the area; or at Widhwidh when elders were rounded up and gunned down on the spot; or at Bali Hadhac when people sitting around an open air tea shop were over run by an armoured truck, killing several of them, including one pregnant woman; or their night assault on Buuhoodle town last week when their attacking militia opened fire indiscriminately on the sleeping residents, killing a number of them and wounding many others, not to speak of the considerable damage to properties.

Much as these specific cases may generate greater shock, yet they are part of unpublicised daily violations of the human rights of the residents of the capital, including extra-judicial killings, rape, indiscriminate detentions without trial, kidnappings, curfews, intimidations, humiliations, the closure of schools and businesses etc. And it is through these egregious actions that the occupying authority use as part of their ethnic cleansing policy in order to force the local SSC population to flee from the city. Most of the displaced have found their way to the Somali refugee camps in Kenya.

These widespread, systematic and inhumane practices by the secessionists against the people of the partially occupied Khaatimo State amount to crimes against humanity as enunciated in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Those in Somaliland who are associated with these practices, whether as leaders or perpetrators, are liable to be indicted at the ICC. If in the past the SSC people had been always on the receiving end, voiceless, powerless and helpless, this time they have their Khaatimo State of Somalia and their own regional government that would henceforth not only defend them physically but will also pursue justice against those in Somaliland who had committed crimes against their human rights.

 Continued