MM (Risk-Return-Tuni) Somalia CG [2003] UKIAT 00129
Date of hearing: 3 October 2003
Date Determination notified: 04 November 2003
MM | APPELLANT |
and | |
Secretary of State for the Home Department | RESPONDENT |
For the appellant : Mr R. Blackford, counsel, instructed by Pearson & Winston
For the respondent : Miss A. Holmes, Home Office Presenting Officer
'may well have been a victim of the general lawlessness that resulted from the problems which arose as from 1991 in Somalia. Nevertheless it is the case that during this period people continued to live in Mogadishu despite all the difficulties and the attacks from various groups and militia which took place in the period which followed the start of the troubles. It may will be that the appellant became involved on one or more occasions, but I believe that if so he is the victim of general lawlessness, or of those seeking protection money, rather than being an individual who was persecuted on account of his clan background or ethnicity …. I take the view that he, like many thousands of other innocent Somalians, may well have been the victim of the general chaos and lawlessness which Somalia experienced. I do not believe he has made out his case that any suffering he endured was based upon his clan or ethnicity.' (paragraph 35).
'I learned that members of a large clan in Somalia had murdered my young child, who was just two years of age. Her name was Abikar and she had been living with my wife and mother in Hamarwyne. I was informed of this tragedy from some Benadiri people who I had met in the United Kingdom. They had had contact with people who knew my family as they told me the awful news. I am completely devastated and what makes it worse is that I have no way of personally contacting my family to share my grief and to ensure that they are alive. I know that they remain in danger in Hamarwyne as members of the Tunni clan and I know my life would be at risk if I were to return there.'
'The elders from Brava told the delegation that they consisted of two subgroups: the Bravanese and the Tunni. Both groups are from Brava and they share to a large extent the same culture. They intermarry between their groups. However, the Bravanese consider themselves Benadiri, while the Tunni do not. The Bravanese are of Persian/Arab/ Portuguese/Spanish origins. According to the Bravanese elders, the Tunni belong to the Digil clan-family. They are originally from the region of Brava. However, the elders gave the delegation a copy of a letter, written by the Bravani elders in Nairobi to a number of organisations (including UNHCR, the US Immigration Department and Amnesty International) on their situation in Kenya, in which the Tunni are mentioned with the Bravanese as part of the Bravani community.'
'The Digil and Mirifle, or Rahanweyn, seem to take a middle position between the Somali clan and a minority. They are considered as a minority group by some experts (such as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Somalia, Ms Mona Rishmawi). By others they are considered as clans related to the Somali clans, both considered as less "noble". In the Transitional National Assembly (TNA) recently formed in Djibouti, the Digil and Mirifle have been included as one of the major Somali clan-families (with thirty-three subclans) and allotted forty-nine seats, distinct from the recognised "official" minorities grouped together at Arta under the title "Alliance Clans Community".
Different use is made of the names Digil, Mirifle (Mirifle) and Rahanweyn. A UN source in Nairobi explained that this is the consequence of an effort made by Siad Barre to amalgamate all these clans under one name, Rahanweyn (the largest group). Originally, however, the Somali distinguished two clan-families, one called the Digil and another variously called the Rahanweyn or the Mirifle.
The Digil and Mirifle are related ethnically to the four main Somali clan-families in various ways. Both Somali and Digil-Mirifle trace their origins back to the same ancestor, at the highest genealogical level: the ancestor of the Digil-Mirifle, Sab and the ancestor of the four main Somalia clan-families, Somali (or Samale) are traced back to the common ancestor, Hill, who is believed to have had Arabian origins. The descendents of Sab are segmented into three families: the Digil, the Mirifle (or Rahanweyn) and Tunni; the Mirifle and Tunni derive from Digil. The Mirifle and Tunni are numerically the most important, but the Digil survive as a small independent confederacy.'
Dabarre
Jiddu
Tunni
Geledi
Garre
'The Rahanweyn clans were largely excluded from political participation in the Rahanweyn-populated Bay and Bakool regions following their capture by General Aideed's Hawiye-based USC/SNA in September 1995, when the Rahanweyn-supported SDM regional administration was ousted. Since then the RRA has fought to reassert Rahanweyn control, capturing Huddur town from the USC/SNA in October 1998 and taking Baidoa in June 1999 with Ethiopian assistance. The [Rahanweyn Resistance Army] set up a regional administration for a Bakool region in December 1998. In March 2002, the RRA set up a new regional administration, SWS [South West Somalia] effectively covering Bay and Bakool but claiming to cover other regions.'
'The decision to establish the SWS Administration was taken at a meeting in Baidoa of the RRA's Central Committee and over seventy Elders from the Digil and Mirifle (Rahanweyn) clans. The meeting elected RRA Chairman, Colonel Hassan Mohammed Nur 'Shaatigaduud' as President of the new regional state to serve for a four years term. There was speculation that the establishment of a new autonomous state would lead to the demise of the SSRC, of which the RRA is a member. The RRA governor of Baidoa announced that the RRA will attend the peace talks due to take place in Nairobi as the new state but that they would, however, 'still be under the SSRC umbrella'.
52. At page 51 of the July 2002 Joint British/Danish Fact Finding Mission to Somalia, President Nur Shaatigaduud discussed with the delegation the possibility of European governments returning persons to South West Somalia. Whilst the discussion clearly shows that the President will be looking for some form of assistance from such governments, in return for accepting failed asylum seekers, there is nothing in what he says to suggest that, rather than fleeing to the United Kingdom, this particular appellant could not have used his financial resources to establish himself in South West Somalia. Nor does the evidence show that, if the appellant were to be returned to that part of Somalia, he would face such a situation as to make it unduly harsh (with reference to the Refugee Convention) to expect him to live there, or as to put him at real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.