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NEWS
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Somalia: Government Orders Security Forces to Kill Any Suspect
March 17, 2007
Government administration in Lower Jubba province, southern Somalia, ordered the security forces in the region to kill anyone they suspect of being a threat to the security and peace in the coastal province near the Kenyan border.
Ilyas Badal, the government administrator for the provincial main town of
Kismayu, was quoted as saying that he had given the security forces the authority to shoot dead anyone they believe is hazardous to general tranquility of the province.
More than 2,000 Ethiopian forces abandoned the provincial main town of Kismayu early this month and headed towards the volatile city, Mogadishu, leaving control of the town to the government administration in the area where great scuffle prevails between the two powerful clans in the region.
"I have given the order that the government security forces in Lower Jubba province have the power granted them to shoot dead armed robbers and anyone else suspected of a threat to the calmness and security in the region. In this approach, the forces will kill the suspect without putting him on the dock of a court," he said, while addressing a contingent of security forces.
The order came after government troops and local militias clashed in Kismayu where one soldier was killed early last week.
Meanwhile unknown gunmen killed Isse Abdi Isse, chairperson of the Kasima Peace and Development Organisation
(KISIMA) based in the southern port city of Kismayu, on Wednesday while visiting the volatile capital Mogadishu.
The UN criticized the killing of the prominent Somali human rights activist, calling his death a loss for all Somalis and warning aid workers of increasingly becoming the target of violence in the Somalia.
Hostility in Mogadishu intensified since Somalia's transitional government and its Ethiopian military allies defeated a rival Islamist movement in December last year.
At least 16 civilians were killed and 30 were wounded early this week after insurgents fired several mortars at presidential compound, while the Ethiopian and government troops based on the tophill of the compound fired back, hitting residential neighborhoods in Mogadishu.
UN agencies working in Somalia say more than 40 000 people fled the city since February.
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Source: Allafrica
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