Dokument #1034099
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
According to an April 1995 Human Rights
Watch/Africa report, forcible recruitment of fighters for militias
has not been a feature of the recent Somali conflict (34, 43, 55).
"Militia members are volunteers there is no tradition of forced
conscription" (ibid., 55). In Mogadishu, the militias "apparently
recruited on a freelance basis rather than through clan levies"
(ibid., 34). Regarding recruitment in southern Somalia by General
Said Hersi Morgan's militia, the report quotes a relief worker as
stating that "forced recruitment was simply unheard of" (ibid.,
43).
A researcher at Human Rights Watch/Africa
stated in a telephone interview on 18 August 1995 that the
organization has no further information on whether or not forced
recruitment has been carried out since its April 1995 report.
Two anthropologists specializing in Somalia
stated in separate interviews on 17 August 1995 that the practice
of forced recruitment was common under the regime of Siad Barre
before it fell in 1991, but neither of them was aware of any
contemporary incident of forced recruitment (Wilkes University,
Wilkes-Barre, Penn.; Colby College, Waterville, Maine).
A professor of political science at
Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina stated in telephone
interview on 18 August 1995 that the militias cannot force anyone
to fight for them on a long-term basis; however, for a particular
battle forcible recruitment may occur (ibid.). The professor
explained that the militias are not standing armies for the most
part, but rather consist of men who fight when the need arises to
protect the clan, or to participate in some looting (ibid.).
According to the professor, there have been
incidents of conscription of members of weaker groups, particularly
the Bantu, for economic reasons (ibid.). This conscription has
taken place in the inter-river region of Somalia, between the Juba
and Shebelle rivers and has taken the form of forced agriculture
labour, often on the banana plantations in the area (ibid.). For
additional information on this subject, please consult pages 38 to
41 of Human Rights Watch/Africa's Somalia Faces the Future,
which is available at Regional Documentation Centres.
For general information on the militias in
Somalia and their relationships with the local population, please
consult Somalia Faces the Future.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below a list of
additional sources consulted in researching this Information
Request.
Anthropologist specializing in Somalia,
Colby College, Waterville Maine. 17 August 1995. Telephone
interview.
Anthropologist specializing in Somalia,
Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 17 August 1995.
Telephone interview.
Human Rights Watch/Africa. April 1995.
Vol. 7, No. 2. Somalia Faces the Future: Human Rights in a
Fragmented Society. New York: Human Rights Watch/Africa.
Professor of political science
specializing in Somalia, Davidson College, Davidson, North
Carolina. 18 August 1995. Telephone interview.
Africa Confidential [London].
Africa Research Bulletin: Political,
Social and Cultural Series [Oxford].
Amnesty International Report.
DIRB Country File.
Country Reports.
Critique: Review of the Department of
State's Country Reports.
The Indian Ocean Newsletter
[Paris].
New African [London].
News from Africa Watch [New
York].
Victims and Vulnerable Groups in
Southern Somalia.
On line searches of media reports
(NEXIS).