Human rights offices closed in Puntland

The authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland have ordered the closure of the offices of several local human rights groups, according to a senior official in the region's commercial capital, Bosaso.

Abdishakur Mire Adan, the Puntland deputy information minister, told IRIN that the region's internal affairs minister, Ahmad Abdi Habsade, had made the announcement in a decree publicised on Wednesday.

The groups affected by the decree are INXA, an umbrella organisation of the Peace and Human Rights Network; the Dulmidid Centre for Human Rights; and We Are Women Activists (WAWA), he said. INXA is a Somalia-wide organisation, while the others are Puntland-based.

According to Abdishakur, the groups "have violated their mandates and engaged in political activities and actions inimical to the interests of the people of Puntland".

Mahmud Jama Ali, the chairman of Dulmidid, told IRIN that the groups had received no official communication from the authorities. But, he added, "we have heard about it [the decree] and seen it on the local media".

He also denied the accusations. "We have not violated any laws and are operating under the Puntland constitution," he said. "The only reason we are being targeted is because of our activities as a human rights organisation."

Other sources in Bosaso told IRIN that the groups had been targeted because they had attended a symposium of human rights defenders throughout Somalia held recently in Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland. The groups may also have been targeted since they had previously reported human rights violations in Puntland, said one source.

Mahmud denied engaging in politics or "any other activity outside our mandate". "If they have evidence, then they should produce it," he asserted.