Somali girl 'pleaded for mercy' before Islamists stoned her to death for being raped
By David WilliamsLast updated at 8:00 AM on 05th November 2008
A girl of 13 begged for mercy moments before a mob buried her up to her shoulders and stoned her to death, it was claimed yesterday.
The Somalian youngster is said to have pleaded 'Don't kill me, don't kill me' before her horrific execution in front of a 1,000-strong crowd.
A boy is thought to have been shot dead amid the appalling scenes inside a football stadium in Kismayu, a rebel-held port.
According to Amnesty International, the girl was 13 and had been raped by three men.
Officials say she was 23 and had confessed adultery before an Islamic court.
The stoning, which took place on October 28, is the first public killing in war-torn Somalia for two years.
Convicting a girl of 13 for adultery would be illegal under sharia law but the authorities said she had lied about her age. Print and radio journalists who were allowed to attend the execution put her age at 23.
Amnesty and Unicef, the UN children's agency, said that the girl, identified as Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, was raped while travelling to see a relative in Mogadishu, the Somalian capital.
Her family is said to have tried to report the crime to the militia who control Kismayu, only for Aisha to be arrested and accused of adultery. None of the men she accused of rape was detained.
David Copeman, Amnesty's Somalia campaigner, said: 'This was not justice, nor was it an execution. This child suffered an horrendous death at the behest of the armed opposition groups who currently control Kismayu.
'This killing is yet another human rights abuse committed by the combatants in Somalia and again demonstrates the importance of international action to investigate and document such abuses, through an international commission of inquiry.'
Amnesty said partway through the stoning nurses checked whether Aisha was still alive. They pulled her body out of the ground to ascertain she was still breathing before the stoning continued.
A Unicef statement said: 'She sought protection from the authorities, who then accused her of adultery and sentenced her to death.
'A child was victimised twice - first by the perpetrators of the rape and then by those responsible for administering justice.'
The agency said the incident highlighted the vulnerability of girls and women in Somalia, which has suffered civil conflict for the past 17 years.
In the latest cycle, Islamist rebels are fighting the government and their backers in the Ethiopian military.
A witness told the BBC the woman had begged for her life and had been crying as she was forced into the hole in the ground.
He said the girl had asked the Islamic administration in Kismayo: 'What do you want from me?'
They replied : 'We will do what Allah has instructed us.'
She said: 'I'm not going, I'm not going. Don't kill me, don't kill me.'
The witness added: 'A few minutes later more than 50 men tried to stone her.'
He said no one tried to stop the Islamist officials, who were armed.
Original article from:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1081214/Somali-girl-pleaded-mercy-Islamists-stoned-death-raped.html?ITO=1490
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