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Somaliland Authorities Handed Ms. Bisharo Wa’di to Ethiopian Security Services.
Contact: Huda Yusuf FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Email: africanrightsmonitor@gmail.com
Somaliland Authorities Handed Ms. Bisharo Wa’di to Ethiopian Security Services.
Human rights instruments provide protection against refoulement. The UN Convention against
Torture, in Sub-article (l and 2) of Article 3 states that:
“1. No State Party shall expel, return (refouler) or extradite a person to another State where
there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to
torture.
2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities
shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence
in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human
rights.”
Reports has reached African Rights Monitor-ARM, that Ms. Bisharo Wa’adi, an Ogaden Women
Democratic Association activist, who fled from Ethiopia to the neighboring province,
Somaliland, as a refugee has been captured and detained by Somaliland authorities and handed to
the Ethiopian Security Services (ESS) on February 10, 2010. Ms. Wa’adi lived in Hargaisa for
the past two years as a refugee under the alias Shamsa Abdulahi Hirsi to disguise her identity
from ESS after she escaped from JigJiga prison where she was unlawfully detained from October
2006 to January 2007. Prior to this latest arrest, Ms. Wa’adi was arrested and jailed multiple
times where she was severely tortured psychologically, mentally and physically. Ms. Wa’adi’s
body bears injuries that made her physically disabled and her mental anguish prevented her from
leading a productive life.
Article 14 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that:
“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”
ARM urgently appeals to the international human right agencies, the United Nations, and
governing bodies, to condemn Ethiopia and Somaliland for these unlawful acts against innocent
civilians that flee a country that does not respect nor protects the rights of its citizens. This is not
the first reported renditions by ESS and the Somaliland forces against innocent Somali refugees
and this violation of basic rights must be stopped and prisoners freed.
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