Short Court Reports from 4/5 October 2011

4 October
The defendant who made an extensive statement on September 26 answered questions from the judge. Most of what he said last time was regurgitated. He talked about his three wives, him keeping his clan-association secret from them and that he wasn't a pirate. And how he swapped a mobile phone for 260 litres of fuel. At the end, he manages to incriminate another of the accused.

5 October.
The defence lodged several more applications to subpoena 2 ethnologists and a German army officer, and to request the interview tapes from the Tromp. Another defendant made a statement and contradicted part of what the previous defendant said.

During the interview, the judge tried visibly to phrase his questions in a way that the defendant would understand. The fact that the issue of understanding isn't just a matter of phrasing the questions is exemplified by the following exchange. The defendant talks about how his parents left with a donkey. The judge then asks:

"Did the donkey have to walk by itself?"

Trial 20.04. Somalia Expert Prof. Mathies

The Professor turned the Court into his university .The whole Court had to sit quietly and look at the images he showed on the wall, explaining life and  habits of Somalian people. Here you can see the visual explanation of the Clan system.

I wonder what the 10 somali men, accused, are thinking about the Germans explaining to one another their lives and systems.
In the meantime - and because it sounded unbelievable that the clan members don't have difficulties to change the clan, and that their is no opression among clan members of different clans - we googled a bit and found out what the professor didn´t know:

"The Somali untouchables"
http://www.africamasterweb.com/AdSense/SomaliUntouchables.html
an Artikel of Bashir Goth

If you think that Dalits (untouchables) exist only in India think again. We have them in Somalia. But what makes the situation of ours even worse is that unlike India where people belong to different races, languages and colours; Somalia is the most homogenous country in Africa with people belonging to a single race and sharing a common language, a common religion and a common skin complexion.

To find a dehumanised group of people in a third world country may look normal, despite its gravity, but the real tragedy is when international human rights organisations ignore the plight of such people.

One such blunder that went unnoticed appeared in the March 2007 report of the Minority Rights Group International (MRG), which placed Somalia above Iraq as the world’s most dangerous country for minority groups. For anyone familiar with Somalia, this assessment will conjure up images of clans who suffered for centuries from sub-human treatment. We Somalis know them; UN organisations on the ground know them and anyone with Internet access will have no difficulty to find them.