Somalia: 1) Information on Aden Shire Jama, Justice minister before 1969 coup 2) Number of doctors, including foreign-trained, in public health services from 1975 to 1989 3) Information on the present mayor of Mogadishu 4) Information on sanitary control at Mogadishu harbour 5) Government attitude towards pronouncements by professionals 6) Information on student demonstrations in Mogadishu around April 1987; other social unrest in April 1987 in Mogadishu 7) What is a "Liberated Professorio" in the Somali judicial system? Information on military courts established after 1969 8) Information on cooking oil shipment by Spain to Somalia in 1978

1) No information on Aden Shire Jama could be found. However, Amnesty International reports covering the period indicate that members of cabinet of the government prior to the coup were imprisoned without trial, at the former presidential retreat of Afgoi. [ Amnesty International Report 1970-71, (London: Amnesty International, 1971).] Some were reportedly released after an amnesty decreed in 1973, while others remained in prison until at least 1987. Amnesty International Report 1973-74, and Europa Year Book 1988: Somalia, (London: Europa Publications, 1988).]

2) The only figures found among the sources presently available to the IRBDC, indicate that in 1978, 198 physicians -118 of them Somalis- worked in Somalia; [ Somalia: A Country Study, (Washington: American University Foreign Area Studies, 1981), p. 126.] in 1980, 262 physicians and two dentists , [Encyclopedia of the Third World, (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1987), p. 1807.] while in 1988, a total of 1,250 physicians worked in the country. [ Europa Year Book 1988, (London: Europa Publications, 1988), p. 2370.] No mention of where they were trained is made in the available sources.

3) No details on the current mayor of Mogadishu could be found among the available sources. A report indicates that the mayor of Mogadishu in May 1986 was Hasan Faarah Abshir, who was driving the president of Somalia, general Siyaad Barre, when their car collided with a bus. [ Somalia: A Nation in Search of a State, p. 168.] The report indicates that five passengers in the colliding vehicles died, but does not indicate whether the mayor survived or if he continued governing Mogadishu after the accident. However, it is reported that important positions of power are held by members of the Marehan-Ogaden-Dolbahanta (MOD) clan alliance. Somalia: Nation in Search of a State, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987), pp. 92-94.

Mogadishu is the exception in the structure of local governments of Somalia: its region is headed by a mayor and a city council, and each of its 14 quarters have a committee composed of six "ex-officio" and 20 appointed members. [Encyclopedia of the Third World, pp. 1798-1799.]

For a reference to the local governments' relation to the central government, please read the second paragraph of the attached copy of Somalia: A Country Study, page 195.

4) Health and Welfare Canada stated that Quarantine and de-rattization (elimination of rats) certificates are standard requirements at all international seaports, although these certificates do not usually guarantee a clean environment for much time after they are issued. The department also stated that each country applies its own criteria in health control of incoming foodstuffs, and, in many countries, port authorities apply these criteria at their own discretion. Additionally, it is reported that food shipments have spoiled at Somali ports because of a shortage of trucks needed for transport and distribution. [ Somalia: Observations Regarding the Northern Conflict and Resulting Conditions, (Washington: United States General Accounting Office, May 1989), p. 9.]

5) Regarding freedom of expression, Somalia reportedly has one of the world's worst records, [ Encyclopedia of the Third World, p. 1798.] and various sources report arbitrary arrest and indefinite imprisonment of people, professionals of various fields included, on vague or non-defined grounds. [Ibid, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1987, and 1988: Somalia, (Washington, U.S. Department of State, 1988 and 1989, respectively), Critique (of the Country Reports for 1987), (Washington: Human Rights Watch, June 1988), and Somalia: A Long Term Human Rights Crisis, (London: Amnesty International, September 1988), Scientists and Human Rights in Somalia, (Washington: National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine, 1988), various pages.]

6) Although no specific information on student demonstrations occurring in Mogadishu in or around April 1987 could be found among the available sources, it has been reported that student unrest increased in 1984 and government response to frequent demonstrations became increasingly brutal. Confrontations between students and Somali authorities reached a peak in 1987, when the army instituted a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Mogadishu. [ Somalia: Observations Regarding the Northern Conflict and Resulting Conditions, p. 3.] The only demonstrations reported in the available sources, are a series of popular riots which took place in August 1987, in response to economic measures decreed by the government. [ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1987, p.263.]

7) No reference to the term "Liberated Professorio" could be found among the sources available. However, for a general view of the composition of the judicial system of Somalia, please find attached a copy of page 1806 of Encyclopedia of the Third World, and of pages 195 to 198 from Somalia: A Country Study ("Legal System", "Sources of Law" and "The Courts"). These documents also contain a description of changes in the judicial system as a result of the 1969 military coup.

8) No information on a cooking-oil shipment from Spain to Somalia in 1978 could be found among the available sources.