Police in a spot over rape, extortion of refugees

Tuesday, 16th August 2011

BY RAWLINGS OTIENO
Kenyan police have been put under the spotlight for perpetrating extortion from fleeing Somali refugees, a report has claimed.
Human Rights Watch has yet again released a damning report that implicates Administration Police and Regular Police, manning the border, in extortion, rape and other heinous rights violations.
The 58-page report, You Don’t Know Who to Blame: War Crimes in Somali, documents numerous human rights abuses for the past one year.
The report names the Kenya and Ethiopia governments as parties to the conflict.
"They have supported military assistance to militias supporting the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), yet neither Kenya nor Ethiopia has acted to ensure accountability for abuses by the troops or by the militias they support," read the report in part.
Protect refugees
While releasing the report yesterday at a Nairobi Hotel, Human Rights Watch researcher Neela Ghoshal said the Police should protect refugees entering the country and urged the Government to bring to account those officers who have violated human rights.
"Police should be protecting the refugees, not extorting money," she said.
This violation of rights, she said, had resulted in the refugees escaping roadblocks and using other small roots, which in turn expose them to bandit attacks and rape.
Ghoshal noted that civilians have borne the brunt of fighting between Al-Shabaab and TFG adding that all sides need to put a stop to the unlawful attacks, let in aid and end the humanitarian crisis. The research, on whose basis the report was established, was based on interviews with recently arrived Somali refugees in Kenya.
The Human Rights Watch said that while Al-Shabaab’s reported, withdrawal from Mogadishu brought some respite to the civilians from the incessant fighting, future abuses are likely to occur unless the warring parties take assertive measures to avert the same.
Arbitrary Arrest
The report also pointed out that the refugees fleeing to Kenya face police extortion, violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, and unlawful deportation to Somalia.
The researcher said that during the interviews, the refugees told Human Rights Watch that they (refugees) took hazardous backroads to avoid the Kenya Police, for fear of deportation or extortion, but were equally gang-raped by bandits along the roads.
The Human Rights Watch has repeated calls for a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate violations of human rights by the warring factions in Somalia.
The report, which was filed between November last year and April this year, makes various recommendations, including encouraging the International Community to continue providing aide inside Somalia and to refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia.