Agence France Presse
June 23, 1995 08:15 Eastern Time
Murder, slavery, beatings, theft in Somalia
by Ali Musa Abdi
MOGADISHU, June 23, 1995
Farmers in Somalia's fertile lower Shabelle region came forward Thursday to tell stories of an area ostensibly at peace but where they say militiamen beat, murder, enslave, tax, steal and expropriate.
The farmers added that they ended up thanking the gunmen -- loyal to south Mogadishu warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid -- for not killing them.
Among the stories: one 29-year-old man killed because he ate two bananas as he worked as a virtual slave on a plantation, and a woman who gave birth after being forced to work all day.
The slave-workers are fed a meagre diet of beans boiled in unsalted water, the farmers say, but are forbidden to eat the fruit they pick.
Ironically, life was actually easier for them in the days of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, overthrown in January 1991, since harvesters then could eat as many bananas as they wanted so long as they did not take any home.
The farmers say that two big banana companies, Sombana, a subsidiary of the US-based Dole corporation, and Somalfruit, which has Italian backing, use militiamen aboard dozens of "technicals" -- pickup trucks with heavy weapons mounted -- to force men, women and children to work on the plantations for more than 11 hours a day for little or no pay.
Roadside sellers said they would give terrified nods of appreciation as passing militiamen helped themselves to cigarettes, coconuts, and fruit juices.
Sombana head Ahmed Duale Gelle "Haf" denied the charge. "We haven't seen human rights violations in the region so far," he said.
Somalfruit refused to comment.
Local faction leader Ibrahim Mohamed Dirie said at least 10 farmers had been killed after resisting militiamen who tried to take over their farms.
He accused the companies of instigating the farm take-overs, and called for a withdrawal of all militias and a boycott of exported bananas.
The farmers say some militias are employed directly by the companies, and that the others are loyal to General Aidid, who they say is supported financially by both Sombana and Somalfruit despite his ouster as chairman of the Somali National Alliance on June 11 by his financier-turned-rival, Osman Hassan Ali "Atto."
Aidid's supporters elected the general as Somalia's "interim president" on June 15, a move unrecognised by his rivals or any government.
During the banana harvest, the farmers said, militiamen pay 50 Somali cents for each bunch of bananas. This means a strong man able to carry 400 bunches in a day can earn the equivalent of three US cents, enough to buy 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of bread.
But the militiamen sell untreated river water for drinking at 500 shillings per jerry can, the equivalent of nine US cents, and charge 150,000 shillings for enough canal water to irrigate a small farm once.
On top of that, the farmers say, they levy a "regional defence tax."
Moallim Mudey Hassan, 45, owner of a 100-hectare (250-acre) farm testified: "First I was refused water from the irrigation canal, then the militias said they would share my farm and give me protection. Finally, six technicals surrounded my farm, and I was ordered to leave. I obeyed the gunmen to save my life."
Hussein Osman Moallim, 55, said 13 Somalfruit gunmen told him they had helped liberate the area during the overthrow of Siad Barre, and that they therefore deserved his 400-hectare (1,000-acre) farm.
"I tried to negotiate, and offered them half the farm, but they rejected the deal. After I heard that one of my colleagues had been killed in his home after trying to resist orders to abandon his farm, I fled to north Mogadishu (under the control of Aidid rival Ali Mahdi Mohamed)."
Abdurahmin Malaq Abdi, 60, was abducted from a bus on his way to Mogadishu and taken with 15 others to work on a farm taken over by militiamen.
He said he was too weak to work in the fields, so was put on garbage collection while the others were forced to clear a canal.
"We worked all day long without payment, but we finally thanked them for allowing us to leave unhurt," he said.
A university graduate who gave his name only as Dr. Musa said he saw a 32-year-old man "tortured, then shot in the head and thrown on a garbage pile, where his body was set ablaze."
Musa, showing his cracked hands, said he did receive payment for his forced labour -- 14 bananas.