New government needs to prioritise human rights - Amnesty

Human rights must be a priority as the new Somali transitional federal government (TFG) prepares to rebuild the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation, according to Amnesty International (AI). "Vital to the success of the transitional government and the establishment of the rule of law in Somalia will be to secure justice for victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity," Kolawole Olaniyan, AI's Africa programme director, said in a press release on Thursday. The statement said critical first steps included the disbanding of the faction leaders' militia and the creation of new security forces that would respect human rights. "An impartial screening mechanism must keep perpetrators of crimes against international law out of the new security forces," the report said. The TFG was called upon to "take visible measures" to protect and support human rights in the high-risk first year of transition. Human rights, as identified by the agency, included the right to freedom of expression and opinion, judicial due process, allowance for the formation of political parties and NGOs, and humane treatment of prisoners. Amnesty also said the TFG should protect human rights defenders, humanitarian workers and vulnerable groups, especially women, minorities, children and internally displaced persons. Noting that fighting and political violence continued in Somalia, the report stated that the stage for peace and reconciliation in the country was "far from set". AI also said that one of the main challenges the TFG faced when it moved from Kenya to Somalia was how to address and punish the crimes and crimes against humanity committed by warlords who were now part of the government, without jeopardising the government's viability. "There must be an open and transparent process to start establishing the truth and responsibility for past crimes with a view to prosecutions once a competent and impartial justice system is in place," Olaniyan said. The watchdog noted that the humanitarian situation in several regions of Somalia, already suffering from extreme poverty and the destruction of infrastructure by years of civil war, had been compounded by the tsunami that hit the northeastern coastline in December. Somalia had been without a functioning government for 14 years until President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's TFG was created after two years of peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya in 2004. The TFG is currently attempting to relocate from its Nairobi base to the Somali capital, Mogadishu.