War criminals re: Las Anod (Sool) Dec 2022 - Aug 2023

[𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒔𐒖𐒕𐒈]

I think this deserves a thread of its own.

Reference:

War in Sool

Similar case could be launched against SSc too there is footage of war crimes against POWs. I doubt it will go anywhere though. It all comes down to who fired the first shot, and that would be secessionists

www.somalispot.com

 

[DR OSMAN]

I think this deserves a thread of its own.

Reference:

War in Sool

Similar case could be launched against SSc too there is footage of war crimes against POWs. I doubt it will go anywhere though. It all comes down to who fired the first shot, and that would be secessionists

www.somalispot.com

This must be passed to Abdiqawi to fast track and begin immediate hearings on these war criminals in Hargeisa. I urge SSC to lobby the USA to also pressure the International court to give it the highest priority and begin a complete aid embargo on SL plus a travel embargo on these criminals to show them this is unacceptable behaviour to kill unarmed people who are not fighting anyone, it's a genocide and those thugs must be put in prison.

 

[𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒔𐒖𐒕𐒈]

I think the case would go to Judge Nawaf S Alam (Lebanon), current President of ICJ, with background and an area of specialty of his.

Judge A/Qawi A Yusuf would probably recuse himself out of avoidance of conflict of interest, perceived or otherwise.
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Core International Crimes Committed In Las Anod By Somaliland’s Forces – Analysis

A) War Crimes
The president of Somaliland is a commander in chief and top military officials of Somaliland who ordered to strike the city with artillery shells, the Las Anod local clan fighters because they have rejected to endorse the secessionist agenda of Somaliland and said they still remain part and parcel of the federal government of Somalia, and that is what is behind the armed fighting between the Somaliland administration and the Lasanod community.

During the armed conflict between SCC [4] self-defenders and Somaliland military attackers in Las Anod, we have a large-scale commission of such crimes committed by the Somaliland government with gross violations of human rights and serious breaches of international humanitarian law that certainly could be invoked internationally as heinous crimes at international law tribunals.

In accordance with the Rome Statute war crime elements [5], the violations of IHL by the Somaliland government have met the following serious war crimes elements that must be discerned and considered: As manifested on the war grounds (Las Anod), the acts are regarded as grave breaches [6] of war crimes and other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict that Somaliland committed are as follows:

1) Willfully and indiscriminately killing innocent civilians that caused great suffering and serious atrocities resulted in large-scale casualties (deaths and massive injuries) with criminally offensive actions to bodies or health facilities.

2) Intentionally extensive destruction of property, medical hospitals, and worship places, and indiscriminate shelling or bombing of the city with massive tearing down of buildings with children, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly

3) Vast populated displacement of innocent civilians, as clearly identified in an interagency assessment mission conducted by humanitarian partners in Puntland, visited villages that are hosting internally displaced people (IDPs) in Boocame, Taleex, Buuhoodle, and Xudun Districts in the Sool Region from 11 to 13 February. The assessment team reported initially that more than 185,000 people had been displaced by the fighting in Laas Caanood; an estimated 89 percent of the IDPs in the assessed areas are women and children. [7]

4) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities, as well as intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects that are not military objectives;

5) Intentionally directing attacks against health personnel and medical facilities that created an unconducive environment for humanitarian assistance access with a great deal of hindrance when the Somaliland government reneged on the promise of a declaration of an unconditional ceasefire.

6) Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack could cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term, and severe damage to the natural environment, which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated

7) Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings that are undefended and not military objectives

8) Employing heavy weapons, bombings, projectiles, and materials and methods of warfare that are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, or that are a violation of the international law of armed conflict.

9) Deliberately directing attacks against buildings, materials, medical units, transport, and personnel using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with international law.

B) Crimes against Humanity
Responding to this devastating crisis, on February 22, 2023, the Somali Ambassador at the United Nations, Amb. Abukar Osman Bale, gave an indictment of those behind atrocities in Las Anod by calling such acts crimes against humanity. About ten nations including the US also expressed their collective grave concerns about this war and called for an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities. Calling for cessation of hostilities in Las Anod is a rare opportunity that united the US and the People’s Republic of China at the Security Council. [8]

As manifested on the grounds of the battlefield and a substantial body of evidence, and in accordance with the Rome Statute crimes against humanity [9] elements, the heinous violations of IHL that the Somaliland government has not met according to the rules of war applicable in international humanitarian law and, therefore, Somaliland forces have committed crimes against humanity:

1) Widespread and systematic indiscriminate attacks or strikes that resulted in massive outrageous murders, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and also killed peaceful protestors at the beginning, such that Somaliland military commanders knowingly engaged in serious criminal acts against humanity directed against Las Anod’s innocent civilian population, including children, women, and elderly people, among others. There have been reports of Somaliland forces carrying out indiscriminate strikes. Residential homes, mosques, and other civilian facilities have been targeted. This is a severe violation of international humanitarian law. Humanitarian law prohibits any kind of indiscriminate attacks. Such attacks do not distinguish between military objectives and civilian persons or property. Such attacks are defined and prohibited in detail in Article 51 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions as well as in Rules 11, 12 and 13 of ICRC Customary IHL study. (Muse, March, 2023)

2) Destruction of civilian infrastructure and indiscriminate shelling with pivotal coordinated bombardment of Las Anod of the city with no military purpose

3) Brutally widespread persecution against local civilians on the ground based on Somali nationalism, ethnicity (tribal ancestor identity), and their political opinion based on the unionism of the Somalia republic.

4) Widespread inhumane treatments, such as intentionally shelling residential areas, the use of force, the threat of large-scale violence, and unlawful killings, including of children with a similar character causing great suffering, serious injury to the body, or damage to the mental or physical health of civilian populations.

5) Large-scale of displacement, where people have been forced to leave their homes and properties behind, which has caused great suffering, or serious injury to the body or to mental or physical health. However, internally displaced people are protected by international human rights law, domestic law, and, in situations of armed conflict, by international humanitarian law [10].

6) And also additional inhumane acts against prisoners of war and other similar characters, intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to the body or to mental or physical health, including several attacks on water facilities that Somaliland forces stationed at Gojacade military base have committed against the Las Anod Water Supply Company, which supplies water to Las Anod city. According to media reports, Somaliland forces destroyed parts of the company’s premises and looted some of its equipment [11]. This is a grave breach of Article 14 of the 1977 Additional Protocol II which prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of combat [12].

https://www.eurasiareview.com/23032023-core-international-crimes-committed-in-las-anod-by-somalilands-forces-analysis/

 

[𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒔𐒖𐒕𐒈]

C) Genocide
Despite the fact that genocide has been outlawed in a number of international conventions and national laws, the Somaliland government may be persecuted for genocide crimes regarding their prevalent genocidal actions committed in Las Anod in line with Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, as we can analogically elaborate below:

1) Mass atrocities and multiple unlawful killings of innocent civilian populations targeted a specific group of people with the intent to destroy them in whole or in part or at least weaken that particular clan living in Las Anod district, who overwhelmingly hailed from the Dhulbahante clan, having also upheld Somali unionism and dissenting to permit the secessionist agenda of Somaliland, a self-proclaimed de facto state.

2) Somaliland’s widespread violence has caused pervasive serious bodily or mental harm that has been inflicted on the residents of the city in a savagely violent way. With a great deal of ill-intentions shown by the realities on the ground, Somaliland’s military forces have deliberately destroyed the city and inflicted clan conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

3) Making the civilian population or individual civilians the object of attack.

4) Knowingly killing innocent civilians with indiscriminate strikes or attacks on the people of the city that caused great suffering and serious atrocities resulted in a large scale of casualties (deaths and massive injuries).

5) Carried out an indiscriminate shelling attack that largely affected the civilian population and their objects.

6) Caused serious bodily or mental harm, and huge exodus of displacements exceeding 250,000 households fled from their homes.

According to convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide [13]. and the Rome Statute of the ICC, genocide means any of the above acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/23032023-core-international-crimes-committed-in-las-anod-by-somalilands-forces-analysis/