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| Africa Horn |
| New rulers to stone rapists to death |
| 2006-06-26 |
| SOMALIA'S newly powerful Islamists say they will stone to death five rapists, in what some fear is the latest sign of a plan to install a hardline Islamic authority like Afghanistan's Taliban. The punishments, like others carried out by the Islamists in their sharia courts in the capital Mogadishu and elsewhere, follow the naming of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys - on a U.N. list of al Qaeda associates - to a top post over the weekend. Mr Aweys, a former army colonel who in the 1990s led militant Islamists in failed campaigns in Somalia but has denied any al Qaeda links, was named head of the Council of Islamic Courts. The United States would have no contact with him, but has made no decision about relations with the group as a whole, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "Of course we are not going to work with somebody like that and of course we would be troubled if this is an indicator of the direction that this group would go in," McCormack said. "But let's wait, let's see what the collective leadership of this group does." The council is a parliament for the Islamists, whose well-trained militias seized Mogadishu from US-backed warlords on June 5 after months of fighting that killed at least 350. The rapists were to be stoned to death in Jowhar, which the Islamists took in the last phase of a campaign that saw them seize a strategic swathe of Somalia from the coastal capital northwest nearly to the Ethiopian border. "Five men who raped four women on June 22 will be stoned to death today (Monday) in accordance with the Islamic sharia. They have pleaded guilty to the crime and also have been identified by the victims," Siyad Mohamed, a militia leader linked to Islamic courts, said to Reuters by phone from Jowhar. Mr Mohamed later said the execution had been delayed as the courts looked to arrest a sixth suspect. He said it was not clear when the sentences would be carried out. The Islamist victory dealt an embarrassing public setback to Washington's counter-terrorism campaign, as its support for the much-despised warlords gave the Islamists popular backing. The Islamists at first tried to present a moderate face to the world, saying they only wanted to end anarchy and restore peace lost since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. Asked about the appointment of Mr Aweys, Somalia's interim government was circumspect: "It is the internal business of the courts," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 Be more interesting if they would stone each other to death |
| Posted by: Oztralian 2006-06-26 21:35 |
| #2 Must be a mistranslation - I thought it was the rape VICTIMS that they stoned to death. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2006-06-26 21:02 |
| #1 What did these guys do to merit such harsh sharia punishment? Not rape these women enough? [/snark] |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-06-26 19:56 |