Amnesty appeals for release of "Gaboye" demonstrators

Amnesty International has urged authoritities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland to release 100 members of the minority Gaboye community detained earlier this month as they demonstrated against the killing of one of their number by the police.

The detainees were being held incommunicado and without charge in unknown locations in Hargeysa, the Somaliland capital, Amnesty said in a statement.

A large group of Gaboye people held peaceful demonstrations in various parts of Hargeysa on 13 May to protest the shooting of Khadar Osman Dhabar by a police officer, in the Hawl Wadag area of Hargeysa. Khadar, 31, later died in hospital from gunshot wounds.

Details of the shooting incident, which happened on 11 May, were still unclear due to differing accounts from the authorities and Khadar’s family and friends.

Amnesty, in a statement issued on 18 May, said: "We consider the detained demonstrators and others arrested later to be prisoners of conscience who are imprisoned on account of their peaceful opinions and defense of the human rights of Gaboye minority."

"Gaboye" is a collective term used by the Somali to refer to people who are considered lower caste because of their occupation. The minority groups – notably Musa Dariyo, Yibir (Hebrew) and Madiban – are discriminated against in the clan-based society and commonly work as blacksmiths, leather workers, herbalists and ritual specialists.

According to custom, they are not allowed to intermarry with other Somali clans, and thus have no protection in the form of vengeance or compensation for murder and other crimes.

Somaliland Interior Minister Ismail Adan Osman refuted the allegations by Amnesty International.

"About 100 of the minority Gaboye group took part in a violent demonstration," he told IRIN on Suunday. "They burned tyres, barricaded roads, threw stones, damaged several business premises and a telephone company at the heart of the town.

"The police were called in to restore public order. The police were forced to shoot in the air, and they made a number of arrests," he added.